Christina Finn

Yeah, and I think we're already hearing budget kites being flown in the last number of weeks.

It gets earlier and earlier every year.

But I think the government will be counting their lucky stars that it is the summer months that people perhaps aren't as focused on the energy bills and turning on the heat and all the rest.

But it will come into sharp focus as we're heading, I think, into August, September.

People going back to school, the cost ratcheting up and people will be planning ahead for Christmas.

It never ceases to amaze me that, you know, we've been having this conversation since, as Jennifer mentioned, the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

And at the time, there was lots of conversations about getting under the bonnet of Ukraine.

energy companies um you know looking at the the profit margins there looking at the pricing system and then we hear the minister today saying you know there um that a letter has been written to the energy companies you know appealing for them you know to look after its customers um and now we're talking about energy credits which is really just throwing money at the situation rather than actually

getting to the deep dive into the whole system.

I think the language, as Jennifer has mentioned, has changed significantly.

When there'd been calls for energy credits from the opposition months previous, it was batted away.

And now we've seen sentences like, nothing's off the table.

But we have had other vague mentions of other supports, like Simon Harris talking about making it easier for households to switch to renewables.

such as heat pumps and solar panels, which a lot of people will welcome.

But I suppose people in that industry at the moment, and I've heard anecdotally from people that are looking to install those solar panels, are now wondering, do I hold off?

Do I wait till September?

So I think the vagueness there is a problem.

And I think people really just want clarity about what's to come.

Yeah, I think the planning system here, as we've seen, is just a major barrier and I can't see... I feel like I'd be writing news articles for the next 50 years about planning and projections to it if there was any proposals.

But I do think, yeah, that it's a bit of a distraction issue, I think, when it comes to pivoting the site away from renewables as having this conversation.