Aurora excuses wearing thin

You can sense — and completely understand — the frustration emanating from businesses and households affected by the latest Aurora Energy shambles.

It would be a running joke were there anything remotely funny for business owners such as Darren Bezett and Nicola Chisholm, whose popular Village Green Cafe & Bar is at the epicentre of a spate of power outages in the Fairfield-Green Island area of Dunedin.

They are, understandably, heartily sick of having to advise customers at their restaurant that meal service is off thanks to yet another outage — no fewer than seven times since October — as, presumably, other business and households are similarly fed up.

It has been a rugged year for local businesses, the Covid-19 pandemic turning everything upside down, and the last thing they need is losing access to vital services.

Aurora has "started an investigation" but does anyone have any real confidence that will lead anywhere in a hurry? Or not be followed by some other mess-up, somewhere else?

The company has blamed strong winds for the Fairfield outages, indicating it believes a wire came into contact with an adjacent street light as a result.

Yet Aurora whistleblower Richard Healey posted online his belief that the extremely dangerous wire-on-street-light event was happening due to a pole being moved too close to a light this year, and that Aurora "loved to blame the wind for their incompetence".

On recent form, one wonders whom to believe.

It has been a dreadful year for Aurora, as it attempts to rebuild its reputation following the revelations of historic under-investment in its lines network and the issues that subsequently caused.

It was slapped with a $5million fine in March by the High Court for infrastructure underinvestment, and slammed by the Commerce Commission for having lost the trust and confidence of its customers. It is awaiting that commission’s final decision on its pricing proposal that is set to leave Otago residents facing massive power price hikes, and is now dealing with this series of power outages in Dunedin following the glitch last month that left a Central Otago community in the dark.

Enough excuses. Aurora can only win back that trust and confidence by continuing to make up for its years of inaction with clear communication, decisive action and smart decisions. We await with interest.

AND ANOTHER THING

It really is game on.

New Zealand’s game development sector is booming, and a real beacon of hope as the economy rebuilds from the effects of Covid-19.

How impressive to hear at an event in Dunedin recently that the sector’s revenue had rocketed 59% in a year, to $324million, and had been averaging 43% growth over the past eight years.

Minister for the Digital Economy Dr David Clark said the industry’s "outstanding success" could not even be slowed by the pandemic, and the "sustainable industry with a low carbon footprint" had the potential to grow dramatically.

We have long recognised that gaming is not the frivolous pastime many thought when it became a cultural phenomenon in the 1980s then boomed again in the 21st century.

It is big business.

The New Zealand Game Developers Association’s annual survey showed 96% of that $324million was generated in the global market. New Zealand, so well placed to flourish in the digital age, aims to create a billion-dollar gaming sector by 2025, and Dunedin, home to the Centre of Digital Excellence, is going to be front and centre.

More needs to be done. We share the sector’s belief that incentives, such as grants and tax rebates, should be considered for gaming companies willing to invest here, as happens in the film industry.