Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on the Government's new announcement concerning the energy sector

More Government cash for the three Crown-controlled gentailers.

That's the biggest change to come from today's energy announcement - alongside plans for a new LNG import facility. 

Energy Minister Simon Watts says a report concluded sector players weren't confident they could ask the Government for money to fund new generation projects. 

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Sopers says the Government rejected plenty of other ideas on the table.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Barry Sober, senior political correspondents with US Aller Barry.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
There'll be an electric car, wouldn't you hear? The good afternoon?

Speaker 1 (00:07):
God only knows this a so car though this is underwhelming,
isn't it?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
It's interesting, isn't it? Because a company, Frontier Economics, was
hard to give them a report. It's a pretty comprehensive report.
I've been looking at quite a lot of it. But
the government, really the answer to it has turned down
a lot of stuff that was suggested. The answer their
answer was, look to tell the gent Taylors that they

(00:34):
can have more money if that's what they want.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Which gin Taylors are asking for more money. Well, the answers.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Mercury and Meridian. Well, I'm a shareholder and a couple
of them, and the shares have paid pretty well, at
least two of them.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Have just gone up in value exactly.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, they can borrow more money as well, which is
a good thing. But I guess it's one way of
the government saying, look, we want we want more or
electricity generation in terms of getting a backup system of
the system as it does most winters fails to some extent,
so there's not obviously not enough investment going in. So

(01:15):
Nikola Willis said she'd written to the three and said
to them that they would certainly put up capital for
any new projects. What they didn't do that would suggested
that they should do is the renationalization of twenty nine
line companies. They'd suggested they should be reduced to five,

(01:36):
and that would have made the system easier to handle
in terms of many things like invoicing and what have you.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Did Frontier economics not also recommend that the entire electricity
system get taken out of the ETS.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yes, they did.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yes, that would have literally an immediate effect. You could
take it out of the ETS and tomorrow your electricity
is cheaper.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah. Well, the interesting thing is that the man who
made them most significant changes to the electricity system in
the last probably ever in this country was Max Bradford.
He took to it with a chainsaw and they were sweeping,
cutting the Electricity Corporation's state monopoly and setting up Meridian

(02:19):
Genesis and Mighty River which is now called Mercury. But
you know, he really didn't. Finally, Max has been in
touch with me today. He's overseas at the moment, but
he said, look, he's disappointed that they didn't go further.
They didn't look at nuclear energy. And you know, this
is a man who obviously has a lot of interest
and energy. Some would say his interest in stair us

(02:43):
in the right direction, but he said, look, nuclear energy
is something that we should be looking at if we
want an uninterrupted flow of energy, and it is safe.
I mean, I've been reading a lot about it this
afternoon for talking to you. Before talking to you, and
in the last sixty years there have only been three
accident to accidents at nuclear sites down the downstream effect

(03:08):
that it was worse than Chernobyl for example, people suffered
for years after that. But it is the advances that's
been made in nuclear energy have been significant, and in fact,
you know, that could be the way that we should
be locking, but it won't happened in this country.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
It's a bold suggestion, certainly bolder than anything Somemmer. What's
came up to Luxelon and leadership? What's happened?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well, Audrey Young did an interesting interview with Luxon because
you know, a lot of talk about his leadership since
the mood of the boardroom at the Herald was taken.
Luxon dropping from number six last year to fifteen this year,
and similarly in Nicola, Willis's popularity among the chief executives
three last year to thirteen this year. So she did

(03:55):
an interview with Luckxon. I was quite interested in it.
Reflecting on his lead, he said he accept the frustration
of people and what some see as the government not
doing enough, but Luckson says he hasn't lost sight of
the reason why he came into politics.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
I came to politics four years ago because I think
there's an awesome country that's not realizing its potential and
I want to do that. That's the mission and purpose
that I've signed up for. I fully understand it's really
difficult and tough times. I understand on the face of
the government to New Zealand and to stakeholders, and my
job is to keep very focused on what New Zealanders
need me to do, which is to get the economy

(04:31):
turned around. I want New Zealand to be the best
small country on Earth. I believe that we can do that.
I think we've got immense potential, but we have to
make some tough decisions about that, and so I appreciate
not everyone will be on board with that.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
It's interesting when you consider, and I have said this before,
that this man Luxeon came from a job in in
New Zealand chief executive paying several million dollars a year
to the Prime minister's job paying a fraction of that.
So he came into a with the best of intentions,
as most people do come into politics. So, you know,

(05:05):
I think it has taken a long time for significant
benefits to show to the country in terms of the
policies that have been implemented. But you know, you can't
doubt this man's sincerity in my view, that he's here
to do a better job for this country and certainly
not for himself.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
All Right, Barry, thank you very much. Barry Soper, Senior
Political Correspondence.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
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