Latest / Best of Business / Darryn Fisher: North Chamber CEO on the impact of the Northland power outage on businesses

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Darryn Fisher: North Chamber CEO on the impact of the Northland power outage on businesses · Best of Business

• 0:09
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• 0:12
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: How about the power in Northland or lack of it?
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  Speaker 2: A Transpower issued the grid emergency. They're looking into why
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: transmission towers fall over. Full restoration will take until at
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  Speaker 2: least this afternoon, they say. Now, Dan Fish's with North Chamber.
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  Speaker 2: He's the boss of North Chambers with.
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  Speaker 3: Us Darren Morning, Good morning, Mike.
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  Speaker 2: How's it not at all? How's it gone overnight? Do
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  Speaker 2: you know?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been a little fragile. There's still many parts
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  Speaker 3: of the region who are no longer with power, particularly
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  Speaker 3: those large power users in CBD areas, and as I
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  Speaker 3: understood late last night, many rural areas still without power
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  Speaker 3: as well.
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  Speaker 2: So at least you'll get it for the weekend, which
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  Speaker 2: I suppose is something. What was that? Do you have
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  Speaker 2: any sort of read on the business effect? How many
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  Speaker 2: doors had to get closed and how much money was lost?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm told at the stage in terms of dollar
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  Speaker 3: value losses, but it's going to be significant. I mean
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  Speaker 3: we already know it. Some economic kidwins at play and
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  Speaker 3: things aren't looking good. I mean just liquidations here on year.
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  Speaker 3: We found yesterday we're up fifty percent here on year,
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  Speaker 3: so that's pretty concerning.
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  Speaker 2: So those liquidations you talk of, that's for Northland or
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  Speaker 2: for the whole country, because those I saw some numbers,
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  Speaker 2: but they were for the whole country, not Northland.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, whole country. But we're pretty consistent in regards to
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  Speaker 3: those figures here in.
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  Speaker 2: Northold Road hasn't helped, of course, absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: The fragility of our infrastructure is a real concern.
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  Speaker 2: I think how much of a talking point is that
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  Speaker 2: because as we were talking to somebody yesterday, and of
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  Speaker 2: course the road's opening from Marto Riki, which is something
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  Speaker 2: I guess, but between that and you know, this thing
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  Speaker 2: falling over, I mean you've got to be sitting there thinking, God,
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  Speaker 2: how bad does it have to get?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I spoke to some of our more
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  Speaker 3: regional business associations yesterday and how they described it as
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  Speaker 3: if you know, this is not the knockout blow for
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  Speaker 3: a lot of small businesses that certainly a standing eight
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  Speaker 3: count you know, it could be very well one of
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  Speaker 3: the things that just keep piling on top of some
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  Speaker 3: of these small employers. You know, what are you hearing about?
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  Speaker 2: Here, and there's a couple of stories floating around. Did
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  Speaker 2: you see the picture of the transmission tower that had
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  Speaker 2: fallen over? The plate at the bottom looked fine, And
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  Speaker 2: there's a number of stories floating about there were water
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  Speaker 2: blasting bolts, too much rust, the bolts gave way, the
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  Speaker 2: thing fell over.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not entirely sure of what the cause is
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  Speaker 3: as yet. I think there's an investigation and all. Well,
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  Speaker 3: I can say there's We've been quite pleased with the
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  Speaker 3: urgency in which things have got back on track. I
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  Speaker 3: mean North Power and Top Energy. You've done a fantastic
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  Speaker 3: job reorganizing things to get as much of the residential
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  Speaker 3: people back up and running, which is really important for
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  Speaker 3: families and schools and areas that you need to stay
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  Speaker 3: on overnight. Can imagine the loss of stock with small businesses, cafes,
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  Speaker 3: You know, they would be really feeling.
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  Speaker 2: It this morning exactly so hopefully done. But do you
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  Speaker 2: know if it's temporary or permanent. This what they're going
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  Speaker 2: to do today? As are they going to put the
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  Speaker 2: tower back up or they going to use a crane
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  Speaker 2: or a trucker or whatever.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I did see some reports that there's multiple different
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  Speaker 3: solutions being sought at the moment, but I think whatever
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  Speaker 3: it is, it's going to be a relative band aid
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  Speaker 3: solution for the time being until something more permanent is
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  Speaker 3: put in place. I don't think the permanent solution is
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  Speaker 3: going to happen quickly.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, the weather wasn't a thing, was it. I mean
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  Speaker 2: it was a bit blowy and you had the rain
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  Speaker 2: and all that, But that wouldn't have blown a tower over,
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  Speaker 2: would it.
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  Speaker 3: I wouldn't think so, no, But I mean the North
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  Speaker 3: was severely hammered with weather night before, so feel for
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  Speaker 3: those people who were battling that on top of power
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  Speaker 3: outages that the next.
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  Speaker 2: Day wet end in the dark. Darren, go well this weekend.
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  Speaker 2: Appreciate it very much, Darren Fisher, North Chamber.
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