NZ First Minister Shane Jones says Transpower should “find the weak link and send them to the knacker’s yard” over the collapse of a power pylon in Northland earlier this year.
It follows the release of an independent report into the incident, which was caused by the removal of too many nuts from the baseplate of the pylon, and resulted in between $37.5 million and $80m in losses to the local economy. It left about 88,000 people without power.
The tower, in Glorit, was being worked on by a Omexom crew – a Transpower contractor.
The report found Transpower had an overreliance on contractors to maintain the tower and that concerns were raised by a senior Transpower engineer in 2021 regarding a gap in the knowledge of maintenance crews, but recommendations for improvement were not acted upon.
Northlander and Associate Minister of Energy Shane Jones said there was a new Transpower chief executive – James Kilty – and his advice to Kilty was to “find the weak link and send them to the knacker’s yard”.
A knacker’s yard was a place where old or injured animals were taken to be slaughtered.
Asked if people and or businesses in Northland should get compensation for any loss, Jones said “course they do”.
“The power [pylon] fell over. Northlanders lost millions of dollars. And I have never heard of anyone either losing their job or being held responsible.”
Minister for State Owner Enterprises Paul Goldsmith – a shareholding minister of Transpower – said he met with Transpower chairman Keith Turner this morning to discuss the report.
“Obviously, we’re concerned about it.”
Turner had advised him Transpower accepted the recommendations of the report and would consider the report and come back to Goldsmith with its full response plan, Goldsmith said.
Goldsmith said he retained confidence in the board, and compensation was something for Transpower to consider.
“They’ve overall conducted their business well, but this is a serious issue.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the report showed there were “some serious questions to ask” of Transpower’s management and oversight of maintenance contractors.
He said the contractors’ ignorance of the danger of removing the baseplate nuts was “alarming” and “would be comical if it wasn’t true”.
He said he didn’t have a view on whether people who lost out due to the pylon’s collapse should receive compensation.
“It’s ultimately up for the Transpower board and for the minister to work through.”
In Parliament shortly after, Labour’s energy spokesperson Megan Woods said her party supported the recommendations in the report.
“It is a report that needs to be taken seriously.”
She asked what conversations Brown had had with Transpower about compensation.
Brown said there was no formal requirement for compensation but there had been “conversations” about how Transpower could “recognise their failure”.
“Those conversations are ongoing.”
Transpower grid delivery executive general manager Mark Ryall earlier said the state-owned enterprise apologised again to impacted consumers and businesses, accepted the recommendations for Transpower in the report, and was “well underway” with actions in response.
Omexom New Zealand managing director Mornez Green reiterated his apology, and said the company undertook its own organisation-wide review which “introduced a range of changes to prevent recurrence of any similar event”.
