Deputy Prime Minister vows to fight for Tiwai aluminium smelter

Thursday, 16 July 2020

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is vowing to fight for the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is vowing to continue fighting for the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, which is at odds to the stance taken in Invercargill today by his coalition partner.

“I began saying this in 2011 and I’m saying it now stronger than ever that this enterprise has got to be saved,” Peters said.

He had been supporting the idea of a Tiwai worker/management buy-out for close to 10 years.

In 2011, Peters went to Tiwai Point and told its workers ‘you guys are going to have to shape up and save yourselves, because you are being taken for a ride by the owners’.

* Prime Minister in Southland to front leaders on Tiwai closure

* The day the axe fell on the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter

At an E tū union meeting on Thursday, union delegate and Tiwai staff member Cliff Dobbie said there was no chance of a management or worker buyout.

Dobbie said the concept had not been brought up with staff and wouldn't be economically viable.

Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones told Radio New Zealand on Thursday morning that New Zealand First would campaign on various options to keep the smelter open.

Rio Tinto announced its contract with Meridian Energy would end on August 2021 and it would wind down operations at the smelter.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was in Invercargill on Thursday to speak with Southland leaders, made it clear the trip south was not to save the smelter and the 2600 direct and indirect jobs attached to it.

Ardern told Stuff that joining coalition partners New Zealand 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 [with Southland leaders] 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 that was had.'

Peters did not agree with the stance of moving on from Tiwai.

Speaking from Auckland on Thursday, he said it was important for those in the deep south to question what this meant.

“Before Covid-19, we were saying as a party [NZ First] that the wealth lies in the provinces, now all of a sudden you are being asked to transition – transition to what?

“They all need to be asking this question. We’ve got a most successful, world-class aluminium product in the world … are we having to give this up? We own the water, we own Meridian, so what’s the problem here?”

He did not believe the parties differing opinions on the smelter would cause a rift between the coalition partners, saying being so close to an election, the ability to speak stand with the party’s position on the issues was critical and each party was entitled to their own view.