The Tiwai industrial subsidy

Bleh, it was bad enough that Tiwai was being effectively subsidised to start with – but a $30m sweetener.  Urg.

I would say something – but I’ll leave it up to my work colleagues.  On Tiwai and electricity and on the Southland workforce and a managed exit.

My additional point, I see no justification for this deal – helping the plant wind-down in an orderly fashion could be justified, but propping it up is not.  This is a transfer of resources to many in Southland (the workers and those they interact with), the firms owners, and buyers of aluminum … and by the sounds of things financial analysts – it is unsurprising that the people being given things from everyone else in New Zealand are supportive of it.

UpdatePaul Walker from Anti-Dismal also comments.  And Seamus Hogan from Offsetting Behaviour here.

12 replies
  1. jamesz
    jamesz says:

    Not having followed the news in NZ, this reads like a Civilian article: “Government donates $30m to struggling multi-national mining giant Rio Tinto”.

  2. detmackey
    detmackey says:

    Alternative spin: at least it’s less than we gave Emirates Team New Zealand.

  3. hamilton
    hamilton says:

    Strongly reminiscent of Muldoon’s intervention – with taxpayers’ money – in the 1977 freezing works disputes.

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] Matt and Paul have both covered the subsidy to Rio Tinto that facilitated a new contract between RT and Meridian Power. There is not a lot to say about the actual policy; Matt's "Urg" pretty much sums it up. But a few points about the politics of this are worth noting.  […]

  2. […] at the TVHE blog Matt Nolan writes on what he calls The Tiwai industrial subsidy. He points us to two articles from Infometrics that are relevant to the topic:  Tiwai and […]

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