Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / John Duffy: Chief Executive of Consumer New Zealand discusses open letter to Parliament

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John Duffy: Chief Executive of Consumer New Zealand discusses open letter to Parliament · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Now. Over the weekend, a group of well known organizations
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  Speaker 1: published an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for
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  Speaker 1: the immediate reform to our energy sector. They believe the
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  Speaker 1: current system holds back productivity and isn't in the best
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  Speaker 1: interest of New Zealanders. And that's true. And some of
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  Speaker 1: the signatories include the EMA, two Degrees and Consumer New Zealand.
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  Speaker 1: So from Consumer we've got their chief executive, John Duffy,
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  Speaker 1: who's woken up early for us. Good morning to you, John,
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  Speaker 1: Good morning.
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  Speaker 2: How's it going good?
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  Speaker 1: Why an open letter?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we think the time is right. I mean, there's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of pressure coming from a lot of sectors
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  Speaker 2: and we really wanted to demonstrate that quite a disparate
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  Speaker 2: group of organizations with lots of different purposes can actually
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  Speaker 2: get together and be quite aligned on an issue as
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  Speaker 2: important as this. And we've got a number of things
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  Speaker 2: that are happening in the sector and one of the
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  Speaker 2: key ones is that there's a brand new review of
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  Speaker 2: how the sector is performing sitting on the Minister's desk.
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  Speaker 2: The Cabinet and the Minister are considering their options right now,
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  Speaker 2: and we really wanted to send a message to say, hey,
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  Speaker 2: you've got this huge group of organizations here that's really
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  Speaker 2: worried about the direction we're heading in. It's time to
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  Speaker 2: make some good decisions that help both industry and consumers.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, is Simon Watt's doing a good enough job, as
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  Speaker 1: you say. He's got this report on his desk. It's
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  Speaker 1: into regulatory settings. It's not about Dam's or geothermalo any think,
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  Speaker 1: And he says the government will make an announcement in
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  Speaker 1: due course. Is he sitting on his hands? No?
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  Speaker 2: I don't think. So. These are big, big decisions, right,
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  Speaker 2: So we've tried to kind of convey the importance of
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  Speaker 2: it in the letter. This is one of the key
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  Speaker 2: inputs into our economy. If we can't fuel our industry
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  Speaker 2: and we can't support the well being of our people
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  Speaker 2: with affordable electricity, we're in real trouble as a nation.
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  Speaker 2: So we don't necessarily want the minister to rush into
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  Speaker 2: a knee jerk reaction. We need decisions to be well
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  Speaker 2: thought through and measured. But I guess we would like
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  Speaker 2: to see submergency in the decision making, and we anticipate
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  Speaker 2: something coming in the coming months, so that is quick enough.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So that is to ginger him up. Your letter
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  Speaker 1: very accurately describes the problems. Of course, we're all about
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  Speaker 1: the solutions here, So would you like to help the
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  Speaker 1: government into coming up with a solution for the energy sector.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, absolutely, And obviously, given the organization that I represent,
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  Speaker 2: i'd encourage the government to be putting people at the
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  Speaker 2: center of any decision making that it's doing, because at
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  Speaker 2: the moment, consumers aren't really or eltricity consumers, the people
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  Speaker 2: of New Zealand, households aren't really that much of actor
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  Speaker 2: and how our system operates. We think about sure, security
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  Speaker 2: is supply, that's important, keeping the lights on, but really
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  Speaker 2: our focus is Unfortunately, the way the market built is
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  Speaker 2: built is on making returns for shareholders. So, like many
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  Speaker 2: industries across the economy, the way the market is geared,
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  Speaker 2: businesses operate to produce shareholder return, which is really important because,
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  Speaker 2: particularly in a capital intensive industry like electricity generation, you
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  Speaker 2: need money coming in so that you can build things. Absolutely,
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  Speaker 2: but when the return to shareholders is outweighing the service
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  Speaker 2: that's been provided to customers, and the return to shareholders
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  Speaker 2: is being prioritized over even investing new generation, we know
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  Speaker 2: we've got a problem.
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  Speaker 1: Good stuff, John Duffy. He as the chief executive of
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  Speaker 1: Consumer New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
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  Speaker 2: to News Talks that Be from five am, or follow
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  Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.