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Katie Woolf spoke with Gerry Wood about the Power and Water outage · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: You are listening to Mix one O four point nine's
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  Speaker 1: three sixteen. I'll tell you what, well, Jerry, what our
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: old mate Jerry joins me in this studio. Good morning, Jerry.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. I know twenty four.
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  Speaker 1: Now Nah, Well, we love having you in the studio
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  Speaker 1: and i'll tell you what you sent me a little
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  Speaker 1: bit of background information this morning when it came to
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  Speaker 1: the situation that we saw late yesterday that put us
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  Speaker 1: all in a bit of chaos. I think you'd agree
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  Speaker 1: with the power out each now we caught up with
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  Speaker 1: power and water earlier today. They said it wasn't an
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  Speaker 1: issue with supply of gas to those generators out at
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  Speaker 1: Channel Island, but it was an issue with the actual
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  Speaker 1: gas infrastructure. Now, Jerry, you've been involved over the years. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: as we all know, you have retired from politics. However,
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  Speaker 1: you're involved in a number of sort of I guess,
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  Speaker 1: different hearings into our power networks and our power infrastructure, etc.
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  Speaker 1: Here in the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Well, in two thousand and nine, fourteen thousand households in
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  Speaker 2: Darwen and Catherine lost their power and that was a
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  Speaker 2: problem with a condensate getting into the gas pipeline and
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  Speaker 2: then getting into the filters, and then the power was
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  Speaker 2: completely shut down. It was an issue about gas coming
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  Speaker 2: from me and I through their new plant. But I
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  Speaker 2: suppose the issue for us then was to find out why.
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  Speaker 2: And we had him placed there in the Council of
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  Speaker 2: Territory Cooperation, which was a bipartisan a committee. I was
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  Speaker 2: the chair, and you had to c LP and two
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  Speaker 2: labor people on that committee, and we were able to investigate.
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  Speaker 2: John Lfrik asked for the committee to look at it,
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  Speaker 2: because we could look at anything that we wished to
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  Speaker 2: look at. And now we have another similar case where
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  Speaker 2: and I was lucky enough how it springs to lose
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  Speaker 2: its power, that's not where I am. It would have
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  Speaker 2: still pretty hot. Nora probably wouldn't have noticed because sitting
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  Speaker 2: under the back for enda with a fan. But I
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  Speaker 2: thought to myself, well, the government's got rid of its
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  Speaker 2: scrutiny committeees. Now people might understand that the scrutiny committee
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  Speaker 2: wasn't just about looking at legislation. The scrutiny committees had
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  Speaker 2: own motion power, so they could have a look at
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  Speaker 2: anything they wanted to. And now this would have been
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  Speaker 2: an ideal one to look at that there was an
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  Speaker 2: economic Scrutiny committee. Now, obviously if the power goes off
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  Speaker 2: for a few hours, it does affect the economy, especially
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  Speaker 2: a small business. It's not necessarily a blame thing, but
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  Speaker 2: it actually allows the public to find out in a
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  Speaker 2: public way an inquiry as to what were the reasons
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  Speaker 2: for the power going out for that time length of time.
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  Speaker 2: Now it relates to the gas and that's what that
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  Speaker 2: inquiry in two thousand and nine looked at as well.
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  Speaker 2: So I thought to myself, well, I think, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the government, by getting rid of the scrutiny communities, has
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  Speaker 2: removed an opportunity for itself, the government to investigate Power
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  Speaker 2: and Water to find out what were the causes of
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  Speaker 2: the blackout.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, because the big thing I guess from yesterday's blackout
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  Speaker 1: is while we've heard from Power and Water and also
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  Speaker 1: the Minister today that there is going to be an
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  Speaker 1: investigation to determine exactly what's gone wrong. If that infrastructure
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  Speaker 1: is actually is not their infrastructure, is not Power and
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  Speaker 1: Water's infrastructure, well then you wonder whether that report's going
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  Speaker 1: to be made public. But then in addition to that,
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  Speaker 1: you wonder whether you know the issue that we saw
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  Speaker 1: yesterday has had any impact on power and water's infrastructure,
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  Speaker 1: i e. Those generators.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you would hope that if the if gas stop,
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  Speaker 2: they immediately shut down. They do they used to. I
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  Speaker 2: can't say I used to have a diesel backup. And
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  Speaker 2: whether they've got any other source of supply. There is
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  Speaker 2: more than one power station, of course there's and this
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  Speaker 2: channel channel channel island, so I don't know. But the
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  Speaker 2: issue of what was the cause and why was it course,
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  Speaker 2: and who's responsible into gas? The people respond for the
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  Speaker 2: pipeline or at least the I think they are responsible
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  Speaker 2: for the pipeline and the supply of gas. But by
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  Speaker 2: having a public inquiry you can hear firsthand from the
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  Speaker 2: people who should know, and then government can then make
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  Speaker 2: recommendations as to whether things can be improved. But it
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  Speaker 2: opens it up. It opens it up for the public
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  Speaker 2: to know what's going on, and I think that that's
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  Speaker 2: what good governance is about. There may have been something
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  Speaker 2: that was actually quite minor that caused it, but you
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  Speaker 2: don't want that to happen again, and so by bringing
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  Speaker 2: it forward in the public arena, you're actually I suppose,
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  Speaker 2: keeping power and water into gas on their toes, making
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  Speaker 2: sure that what they do is out there for the
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  Speaker 2: public to sort of see.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they'd said to me, so Power and Water had
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  Speaker 1: said this morning, APA, or have the pipeline operator and
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  Speaker 1: then of course they know. Then of course Power Water
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  Speaker 1: has the infrastructure as I understand it. At Channel Island.
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  Speaker 2: That's why there's a pipeline owner of the pipeline or
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  Speaker 2: with someone who's in charge of that. But there's also
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  Speaker 2: I think the supplier of the gas the gas, and
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  Speaker 2: then there's power and water.
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  Speaker 1: Gee, it's confusing, isn't it like the labor to try
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  Speaker 1: and work out exactly who's got what and what the
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  Speaker 1: heck's going on.
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  Speaker 2: I sometimes think the provision of power in the oldn
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  Speaker 2: territory is quite confusing. It is with a number of
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  Speaker 2: people that are coming to the market and solar they're
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  Speaker 2: private people. You have a government operation which runs Channel
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  Speaker 2: Island and Widell and they are in all the infrastructure.
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  Speaker 2: Then you have private people with solar on their roofs,
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  Speaker 2: and government wanted to put more and more emphasis onto
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  Speaker 2: solo and we've still got to run gas to keep
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  Speaker 2: the system going. And now we're going to spend millions
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  Speaker 2: of dollars on batteries. Sometimes I get confused as to
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  Speaker 2: where this where How does it all work? In the
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  Speaker 2: sense that we are paying still a large amount of
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  Speaker 2: money to keep the price of electricity down. We have
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  Speaker 2: this subsidy we pay through the GST money have one
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  Speaker 2: hundred million dollars to keep our cost of our electricity.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's around about twenty two cents a kilo
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  Speaker 2: what And when I actually asked a power and water
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  Speaker 2: what would it cost if we didn't have the subsidy,
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  Speaker 2: it'd be about forty four cents of killer what. So
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  Speaker 2: the government always says we have powers at a good price,
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  Speaker 2: but it doesn't tell you that we are subsidizing it
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  Speaker 2: to the tune of about one hundred million dollars. That's
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  Speaker 2: community service obligation they call it, and you find that
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  Speaker 2: in the back pages of the budget if you're ever
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  Speaker 2: looking for it. So, yeah, that's a broader issue about
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  Speaker 2: how everything's going to fit together, who's going to pay
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  Speaker 2: for what, and will all the private development that's coming
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  Speaker 2: into provision of power make it harder for power and
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  Speaker 2: water to actually survive in the sense of is it
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  Speaker 2: going to have a bigger debt because it's got less
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  Speaker 2: paying customers, Because they're paying out to some of the
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  Speaker 2: private industry.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and I'll tell you what. If there's one thing
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  Speaker 1: I know, it is that no matter what, people expect
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  Speaker 1: reliable power. And while the power was on the up
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  Speaker 1: for a couple of hours yesterday, it's still forty nine
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  Speaker 1: thousand people. That's right.
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  Speaker 2: But that's where Scrutiny Committee could inquire and you can
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  Speaker 2: go along to those meetings. The only alternative that is
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  Speaker 2: the Parliamentary Accounts Committee. But these are all controlled by
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  Speaker 2: the government these days, so if they don't want to
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  Speaker 2: do it, then you haven't got much hope. Whereas before
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  Speaker 2: with the Council Territory Cooperation had an independent chair.
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  Speaker 1: So you reckon that should be back in.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely think so, because it allowed the parliamentarians at all
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  Speaker 2: side the freedom. They weren't bound by you know, what
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  Speaker 2: the party said here though, were bound by what was
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  Speaker 2: you know, the public would like to find out about.
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  Speaker 2: So we had the Mataranca you know where the cattle
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  Speaker 2: died at Mataranca. We had issues about domestic violence. We
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  Speaker 2: were looking at the Sight Hit program or the houses.
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  Speaker 2: We travel all over the place looking at those houses.
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  Speaker 2: So we had a role that allowed the public to
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  Speaker 2: find out what was actually going on. Now it's very
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  Speaker 2: hard these days to find out what's going on unless
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  Speaker 2: through the media.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's right, and then sometimes we struggle to find out.
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  Speaker 2: Well, at least when you have a public inquiry, it's
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  Speaker 2: out there for the public to hear and they can
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  Speaker 2: come along to those meetings. And I think that that's
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  Speaker 2: a healthy environment. But now we've got real scrutiny committees.
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  Speaker 2: I think we've gone backwards.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Jerry, would I tell you what? It's always good
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  Speaker 1: to catch up with you, mate. We miss you. How's
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  Speaker 1: retirement going?
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  Speaker 2: As busy as anything, plenty of work. I'm firing, and
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  Speaker 2: I should say we're looking at trying to bring out
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  Speaker 2: an anthology for doctor John Hargraves, and I might come
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  Speaker 2: and speak to you later about how we're looking at
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  Speaker 2: trying to raise money for that. Joctor John Hargraves was
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  Speaker 2: a famous doctor that worked at East arm leprosy the
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  Speaker 2: Lepus Areum and did a lot of work throughout the
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  Speaker 2: top end with especially with Aboriginal people. And he worked
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  Speaker 2: in East Tmoor and West Teamoor with facial reconstruction. Wow,
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  Speaker 2: very famous, very you know, he was very humble doctor,
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  Speaker 2: So maybe not everyone heard of him, but a fantastic person.
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  Speaker 2: He died in Hobart earlier this year and we don't
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  Speaker 2: want his name to disappear because he's left such a
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  Speaker 2: great legacy. And so I'll get back to you and
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  Speaker 2: we know a.
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  Speaker 1: Little bit more good. Yeah, we're always happy to have
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  Speaker 1: you on, Jerry. We miss our regular chats, mate. We
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  Speaker 1: wrot you on the week that was. I like it
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  Speaker 1: when you send me a text here and there.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I'll keep them, yeah, I'll keep them on their toes.
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  Speaker 2: Want to hear a lot of rubbishman spoken.
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  Speaker 1: Make sure you do. Mate. You're missed, there's no doubt
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  Speaker 1: about it. Good on you, Jerry, Thanks so much for
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  Speaker 1: coming in this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie,