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Ryan Bridge: On New Zealand's energy crisis · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Shane Jones has given quite a fiery speech. This is
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the general debate and the House fired up, and he
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: was taking aim at the Greens in particular. Of course,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: he's the Resources and Associate Energy Minister taking aim at
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the Greens over well what was essentially Labours oil and
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: gas band and he's calling out their opposition to using
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: key we coal.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: We can cower up New Zealand by using our domestic
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: coal resources. But that party would rather see New Zealand
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: as thrown on the unemployment scrap keep as we've witnessed
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: this week. They would rather see people cold. They would
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: rather see people in their retirement years too afraid to
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: put the jug on or the sleeping blanket, just so
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: they can cover themselves in an ideological blanket of piety
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: and self righteousness.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And that wasn't it. That was not scripted. That was
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: just Shane Jones just going for a healthful leather in
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the house. A very enjoyable speech. He's easy to listen to,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: his nichechane anyway. He makes a point, doesn't he about
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the workers who are being affected by all of the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: closures that are happening around the country at the moment.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I flicked off an email to Methanex yesterday because they've
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: shutted operations at their plant until October, and I just
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: wanted to check are you definitely going to reopen and
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: they said yes, we're looking forward to restarting operations in November,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: so that is good. But they do say this about
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: our current electricity system, and I think it just sums
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: it up. Our highly renewable electricity sector is increasingly reliant
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: on intermittent renewable power generation, which needs to be supported
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: by thermal generation to provide energy security when it doesn't
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: when the rain doesn't fall, the wind doesn't blow, or
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the sun doesn't shine. During the last three years, they've
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: operated at reduced rates or shut plants over high electricity
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: demand periods during winter to ensure there's enough gas for
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: everyone to go around. Now this is the interesting part.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: While the government has recently signaled positive policy changes like
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: reversing that offshore oil and Basket gas band, we believe
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: additional support policies are urgently needed for New Zealand's incumbent
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: upstream companies such as OMV, Todd and Graymouth to help
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: improve confidence and enable the development of future gas supplies
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: to prevent what they call the de industrialization of our economy.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: So anyway, we're hoping to have them on the show
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: actually next week, just for a chat about exactly what
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: those things are that they want changed.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: For more from News Talks B listen live on air
• 2:38
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• 2:39
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• 2:41
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