A new weekly podcast “Locked Out with Craig Renney” produced by award winning podcast company Blindfish Media.

“Locked Out will examine the numbers being thrown around in New Zealand and will take a critical eye to areas of politics, economics, and society” says host Craig Renney.

“We are really looking forward to engaging with New Zealanders about the numbers they are hearing, and asking if they matter, who is winning and losing, and why. We’ll be working with experts and analysts to understand what is really going on and investigating if the numbers being used can be believed”.

The first episode will be looking at the recent absence of some numbers in the electricity market with Ed Miller, a Researcher at CICTAR.

Renney said, “We have uncovered that the government has stopped collecting data on electricity company margins – just at the same time that energy prices are rising again for winter”.

“Together with the removal of data on the number of households in energy hardship, Kiwis can now find out much less about how the electricity market is working for them, or vulnerable clients. The last set of data was produced in December 2024. It showed that the operating margin for electricity (the difference between the cost of generation and the price paid by customers) reached 92%. Meaning that for every dollar of electricity bill, only 8c was the direct cost of generation”.

Renney said “As the majority shareholder of three of the largest electricity firms the government can choose different outcomes. At the last Budget it also cut $127m from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority – meaning cuts to the Warmer Kiwi Homes Programme. High energy prices have led to job losses at paper mills, meat works and other energy-intensive sectors. Why did the government cancel the production of this data?”.

Locked Out with Craig Renny will be available every Thursday at 4am on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

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