Copeland Gordon: Urgent Debates — Power Outage—Upper North Island 
Copeland Gordon: Urgent Debates — Power Outage—Upper North Island 
[Volume:631;Page:3488] 
GORDON COPELAND (United Future) 
: 
 Transpower has a number of questions to answer in respect of the blackout that occurred in Auckland yesterday. It is in truth a national embarrassment. I have spoken today to members of a number of multinational companies who have received considerable inward email correspondence in the last 24 hours most of it making New Zealand the butt of international jokes. Those companies include some of the largest and most successful corporations in the world and they are now beginning to assign New Zealand to Third World status when it comes to security of electricity supply. It is simply not good enough. I also mention to the House that just a little while ago we had a power cut in Bowen House here in Wellington; we seem to be in a season of power cuts. 
Questions have to be asked about why the blackout was allowed to happen. It is inescapable that there must be some accountability in our system and that those who are responsible for this unacceptable event should be asked about it and brought to account for it. 
I mention Transpower in particular because as others have mentioned this situation was foreshadowed for some time by Keith Turner of Meridian Energy and by a number of other people who have come to see me in my role as United Future’s energy spokesperson. They have been saying to me for the last couple of years that there are similar problems in terms of getting power into Nelson and other parts of the country that the job is not being done that we have not maintained our electricity grid that we have not done maintenance when it was needed and that we have been gambling as it were with the electricity supply to both commercial and domestic consumers in this country—to my knowledge for the last couple of years. 
It gets worse because as we all know the proposal for a new 400-kilovolt line into Auckland that was put forward by Transpower was rejected by Roy Hemmingway of the Electricity Commission because in his view it involved inadequate analysis of the problem and inadequate consultation with the affected people. Transpower has therefore been forced embarrassingly to come back with a new proposal. 
I am talking about an organisation that has the highest ratio of highly paid executives of any State-owned enterprise in the country. That is to be expected because they are professional engineers but notwithstanding that reality one can look at it the other way—that it increases the level of responsibility and accountability that should apply to this organisation. We have to ask ourselves whether they are earning their pay and adequately serving the interests of New Zealand’s electricity grid. I think that on a number of things now—at least three different matters that have come up—the organisation has been seen to fail. 
We really have to set right this quite unacceptable situation in terms of electricity going into Auckland. It beggars the imagination that Transpower’s planning with all of its expertise and brainpower could have been so inadequate that one single line going down could bring our largest city to a blackout for 5 hours. It is not good enough and I am very pleased this matter is being debated in Parliament today because we have got to get that message across. I say to the Minister of Energy that I think it is time some people were held accountable for what has gone on. How else do we ensure that we do not face this again somewhere else in some other city—Wellington or elsewhere—in the near future? God forbid that it should revisit Auckland if we have as is forecast in some cases further inclement weather and further weather bombs as they are known during this winter. 
I am very very concerned indeed about the great damage that has been done to Auckland and also in particular to New Zealand’s international reputation. In my time as energy spokesperson for United Future I have had multinationals say to me that they are moving to Queensland because there they can enter into long-term electricity supply contracts. They pay more for electricity there than they would in New Zealand but at least they have security of supply which they cannot get in New Zealand. Here they cannot enter into contracts for security of electricity supply for a period of time which would give them some payback on their initial investment. That is a disgrace. 
I think the Government has to take some responsibility for what has happened and to admit that it has got to lift its game and sort out these problems; otherwise we will see inaction excuses double-ups and bureaucracy continue to weigh down this country’s economy and that is just not good enough. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.