PM: Government needs to support job creation and transition in Southland
Thursday, 16 July 2020
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has spoken of the need of job creation in Southland, and Government support to do that.
In a Thursday morning media stand-up after a meeting with civic leaders desperate to keep the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter open, Ardern said it is clear there are “huge economic development opportunities that exist in Southland”.
Plans had been under way for some time to develop those opportunities, whether in research and development in new food production, aquaculture or data centres, Ardern said.
“The opportunities here are significant.”
**READ MORE:
* Prime Minister in Southland to front leaders on Tiwai closure
* Invercargill City Council braces for Government funding announcements
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Rio Tinto announced last week it will close its aluminium smelter near Bluff in August 2021, resulting in up to 2600 job losses directly or indirectly connected to the smelter.
She understood Rio Tinto was still in talks with Meridian Energy and the timing of those commercial talks would assist the Government in determining the timeframe it needed to support the region.
However, this has given good reason to speed up what the Government was already doing, she said.
“But what has been clear from the meetings today is that we are all in agreement that a transition is needed … that everyone wants high-wage, decent jobs here in Southland.”
The Government has made it clear the trip south is not to save the Tiwai Point smelter and the jobs attached, but mayors and business leaders have signalled they will fight the closure.
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones alluded that it was possible to simplify the resource process to potentially allow open-ocean aquaculture areas in Southland.
Jones also said in an interview with Radio NZ on Thursday that NZ First will campaign on different options to keep the smelter open.
In an opinion piece, published by the Herald, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said “while it has been clear that Rio Tinto was never going to support Southlanders over the long haul, especially the workers who actually produce its world-class aluminium, and the businesses that survive off the back of its operations, we now have 2700 people who could lose their jobs”.
“The Tiwai announcement should come as no surprise; predators rarely feel empathy for their prey,” he wrote.
“We have 14 months to fix this, and fix it we will. Any government with New Zealand First in it, now and in the future, will ensure those jobs are not lost to Southlanders.
“Instead of caving in and paying $30 million to a Rio Tinto subsidiary seven years ago, National should have called Rio Tinto’s bluff and supported New Zealand First’s idea of a worker/management buy-out – something I’ve been advocating since 2011.
“Why? Because the real blunt commercial reality is that Rio Tinto has, in my view, nothing of value to sell.
“Additionally, any potential worker/management buy-out is not without leverage given the estimated $400m worth of remediation Rio Tinto is up for as part of any exit strategy.
“A buy-out would give those who have the most stake in the success of the smelter, the people of Southland, the opportunity to directly benefit from owning and managing it,” Peters said.
When asked about Peter’s statement that keeping the smelter open was a matter of national importance, Ardern said she’d seen his position.
“Ultimately, that wasn’t the nature of the conversation we had with leaders today. All of us talked about the transition.”
Obviously there have been many discussions about the future of Tiwai over many years, she said.
“Now we are working to hard timelines.”
Ardern said joining coalition partners NZ First in its call to save the smelter long-term was not in her or her party’s thoughts.
“So much of our position is guided by the community and what I heard in that room was exactly the same thing that is what is in our thinking, which is, what’s next for Southland? There wasn’t a conversation around what can we do to change the ownership or ownership structure of Tiwai. That wasn’t the guiding conversation.”
Earlier on Thursday, Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt believed there might be a slither of hope the Tiwai Point smelter might be saved as he headed into a meeting with the Prime Minister.
After leaving the meeting with senior Government ministers, Shadbolt said the “reality” was the smelter would close one day.
When asked if Ardern had given him hope the smelter may stay open, Shadbolt replied: “You never say never, but I think in reality we’ve got to face the fact that one day it is going to close.”
It is understood Southland leaders have asked for more time until the smelter closes, so other replacement industries can be bedded in to lessen the impact of potentially job losses.
Shadbolt said time was needed to work out a solution and that’s what would be focused on.
Great South chief executive Graham Budd said they told Ardern Southland had too much to lose in terms of economic impact and job losses to let the smelter close next August.
“The key message and outcome from it was that we needed to find more time to keep the smelter open for longer.”
Southland Chamber of Commerce president Neil McAra said it was a positive interaction and they looked forward to further discussions with the Government to find a solution.
Invercargill deputy mayor Toni Biddle said negotiations would continue around Tiwai remaining open for a “period of time”.
Community leaders had made it clear the region needed assistance from the Government sooner rather than later, she said.
Invercargill businesswoman Carla Forbes created signs depicting headstones for the Southland economy and on Wednesday, created a graveyard along Airport Ave, Invercargill, as a message to the Government.