OPINION: I think it is utterly devastating for the workers of Tiwai Point's aluminium smelter that the Rio Tinto owned business south of Invercargill will close in the middle of next year.
Why? Because Rio Tinto, the company that made - wait for it - $8 billion dollars globally last year can't extort New Zealanders for cheaper power to make their business viable in New Zealand.
If you need to extort us to survive then maybe your business isn't viable in the first place.
Or did this Government just refuse to get bullied by a global giant and in the game of who blinks first will Rio really pull down the garage door next year?
Although given COVID-19, could a case be made in the short term to keep the subsidy going to protect these jobs in the meantime? Of course.
More than 1000 jobs gone in a massive factory in a small province - add in the contractors who also put food on the table thanks to the smelter and I wonder if the smelter is simply too big to fail?
If you don't spend $20 million to prop them up you'll only end up having to spend the same on welfare.
And where is the new industry being set-up and this so called transition to smart, sustainable green jobs?
The headline sounds great but the reality is no one can find anything on offer.
What we are really getting is a Government crossing its fingers behind its back and hoping Rio Tinto blinks.
And if it doesn't it's hoping a magical new industry will spring up to replace the jobs.
That's why National reluctantly gave them $30 million dollars seven years ago because it was either that or the dole queue and politicians have to win elections so it was prop them up at all costs.
But this Government has refused to bend over for Rio Tinto.
It's brave and risky but someone had to stand up to this spoiled little kid called Rio Tinto who has thrown annual tantrums since forever as a way to get huge taxpayer handouts.
"Bugger off" says Labour. All very principled but what about the workers?
Labour must protect them but it is refusing to say how.
Duncan Garner is host of The AM Show
