Kerre Woodham: Transpower needs to take responsibility

Mistakes happen. We get that, we've all made them. Some are more serious than others. Some are fixable, some are not. But as old Mr. Martin said in the LV Martin and TV ads, it's the putting right that counts.  

There was no doubt, almost from the time the Transpower pylon tower hit the ground, that somebody within that crew had made a fundamental error. We had callers in, the morning of the tower collapse, who pretty much delivered the same findings that the official investigators produced days later. The tower fell because the crew that was performing routine base plant maintenance work didn't follow standard practice and they removed all of the nuts from three of the tower four legs, and it fell over. That human error caused the incident that cut power to tens of thousands of people and cost an estimated $60 million to householders and businesses.  

Northland's been hit pretty hard over the past few years with the Covid lockdowns, major closures and weather events, and then the pylon collapse. Some of the events have been acts of God, and you just have to accept that life is not always easy. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. You take a deep breath, and you carry on. But when a major company is responsible for a seismic interruption to business, when there was insufficient supervision of inexperienced workers who hadn't received any formal training for the work they were doing, who weren't certified for the tasks they completed unsupervised, that the inexperienced team member who removed the nuts from the foundation legs was not adequately supervised while performing the task... come on, this is not one of those things! This is not an oh well, we can't control the weather or well, it's a tricky little virus that needs to be controlled situation, this is a SNAFU. This is a FUBAR. And companies should take responsibility when they make fundamental errors or their contractors do.  

Ultimately, Transpower is responsible for delivering the part of the region. They shouldn't be trying to weasel their way out of their obligations. Transpower acting CEO John Clarke said compensation for businesses won't be happening: “Given the challenges and practicalities for utilities, of all the things that can happen to interrupt supply, there's not any way that we can compensate them.” It is simply not good enough. This is under oh well you know, one of those things. It's not one of those things, it's a major stuff up.  

North Chamber Chief Executive Darryn Fisher says Transpower needs to front up.  

“In a place like Kaitaia, where 600 people are reliant on one big business staying alive, the direct result of what has happened here with Transpower puts those things in jeopardy. And I'm calling for the board and that management team to put their big boy pants on, get on an airplane, get up here, and front up to these local communities and explain why their negligence is putting their livelihoods at risk.”  

“Transpower have got values on their website talking about how they're good social citizens, and how they're good community people, well what they're about to do through their negligence and avoiding all of this conversation is absolutely crush a workforce and small community towns like Kaitaia.” 

And Northland MP Grant McCallum says transfer needs to open up their chequebook for Northland.  

“People like myself, the leaders of Northland, sit down with Transpower and say, actually you owe the people of Northland. There's a lot of anger out there. You've heard it from the business community this morning. They're really frustrated. They feel that they have their owed something. And actually the wider community, which has been my pitch, is for the wider community t

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to. The Carrywood of morning's podcast from news
Talk said.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Be mistakes happen. We get that we've all made them.
Some are more serious than others, Some are fixable, some
are not. But as old mister Martin said in the
LV Martin TV ads, it's the putting right that counts.
There was no doubt almost from the time the Transpower

(00:32):
pil on tower hit the ground that somebody within that
crew had made a fundamental error. We had callers in
the morning of the tower collapse who pretty much delivered
the same findings that the official investigators produced days later.
The tower fell because the crew that was performing routine

(00:53):
base plant maintenance work didn't follow standard practice and they
removed all of the nuts from the three of the
tower's four legs and it fell over. That human error
caused the incident that cut power to tens of thousands
of people and cost and estimated sixty million dollars to

(01:17):
householders and businesses. Northland's been hit pretty hard over the
past few years with the COVID lockdown's major road closures,
those are still ongoing weather events and then the pylon collapse,
and some of the events have been acts of God,
and you just have to accept that life is not

(01:38):
always easy. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. You
take a deep breath and you carry on. But when
a major company is responsible for a seismic interruption to business,
when there was insufficient supervision of inexperienced workers who hadn't
received any formal training for the work they were doing,

(01:58):
who weren't certified as competent for the taks, for the
tasks they completed unsupervised, that the inexperienced team member who
removed the nuts from the foundation legs was not adequately
supervised while performing the task. Come on, this is not
one of those things. This is not a well we

(02:21):
can't control the weather, or well it's a tricky little
virus that needs to be controlled situation. This is a snafu.
This is a fubar, and companies should take responsibility when
they make fundamental errors or their contractors do. Ultimately, Transpowers
responsible for delivering the part of the region, they shouldn't

(02:45):
be trying to weasel their way out of their obligations.
Transpower Acting chief executive John Clark said compensation for businesses
won't be happening given the challenges and practicalities for utilities.
Of all the things that can happen to interrupt supply,
there's not any way that we can come and sate them.

(03:07):
That is simply not good enough. This isn't oh, well,
you know, one of those things. It's not one of
those things. It's a major stuff up. North Chamber Chief
of the Executive Darren Fisher says Transpoerd needs to front
up and.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
A place like Kaitaia, where six hundred people are reliant
on one big business staying alive, the direct result of
what has happened here at Transpoer puts those things in jeopardy.
And I'm calling for that board and that management team
put their big boy pants on, get on an aeroplane,
get up here and front up to these local communities
and explain why their negligence is putting their livelihoods at risk.

(03:51):
Transpower have got values on their website talking about how
they are good social citizens and how they're good community people. Well,
what they're about to do through their negligence and avoiding
all of this conversation is absolutely crush A work course
in small community towns like Katas.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
And Northland. MP Grant mccullums says Transpound needs to open
up their checkbook for Northland.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
People like my south Lairs of Northland sit down on
Transpound say actually you owe the people of Northland. There's
a lot of anger out there. You've heard it from
the business community this morning that are really frustrated. They
feel that they had burrowed something. And actually the wider community,
which has been my pitch, is for the wider community
get to get some a decent check from Transpower which

(04:36):
we can use the benefit all of Norfold because everybody
was affected, the power went out to the whole province.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
It's just not good enough. I mean, come back to
what John Clark said, the acting Chief Executive. Given the
challenges and practicalities for utilities of all the things that
can happen to interrupt supply, well yeah, sure, weather events.
I totally understand that Transparer can't control those. Perhaps I

(05:06):
don't know, animals one of the other There are things
that can happen that are beyond your control. This is
not one of them. This is contracting out to a
crew who worn'd up to the task. Quite clearly, if
it had happened to any one of these businesses that

(05:26):
had been affected, if they had made an eerror of
that magnitude that could be traced back to incompetence and
an adequate supervision, you can bet your bippy that they
would have to pay, that they would have to recompense
their customers. This is a fundamental human error. It is
not one of those things. And it is high time

(05:47):
in this country that when we made mistakes, we owned
to them and we did our best to mitigate them.
I'm sick and tired of people washing their hands of
responsibility of going you know what, you know, it happens.
We stuffed up and oh so what, so what? Sixty

(06:10):
million dollars to householder householders and businesses who are already
doing it tough. Yeah, like the man said, put your
big boy pants on. Own this. It's on you, not
on the businesses, not on the householders were affected. They're
already dealing with enough that they can't control. This is

(06:30):
something that should have been controlled. It wasn't.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
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