‘People are already leaving’: Mill closures could leave Raetihi a ghost town

Wednesday, 28 August 2024

Mill workers and their families are already packing boxes, a Raetihi resident said at a community hui on Tuesday night.

Mill workers and their families are already packing boxes to leave town, a Raetihi resident said at a community hui on Tuesday night.

Winstone Pulp International last week announced it plans to shut two mills in the Ruapehu district “indefinitely”.

The proposed closure comes after the company halted production due to rocketing electricity prices.

Families in the tiny North Island town of Raetihi are already packing their bags and preparing to leave town as jobs dry up.

A packed town hall meeting on Tuesday night came a week after Winstone Pulp International, the Ruapehu District’s largest employer, said it planned to shut Karioi Pulpmill and Tangiwai Sawmill “indefinitely” as soaring electricity cost make it too expensive to keep the mills running.

Barney Warbrick, who has family employed by WPI, said families are already packing boxes to leave town.

“They’re not even waiting. These people are already leaving, which is real sad” Warbrick said.

Mill workers and their families at the Raetihi community hui talked about the impact of the potential closure of two mills on families in the region.

“We shouldn’t have to leave our whares, that’s your home.

“When you go away, you come back home, you don’t want to come back to another ghost town.”

The closure will have a “chain effect”, with impacts reaching people stacking supermarket shelves and cleaning.

Hui organiser Liz Brooker said the impact is “bigger than 230 people, 230 jobs. This is our entire region”.

Raetihi resident Barney Warbrick said families are already packing to leave: “You don't want to come back to another ghost town”.

Earlier in August, workers were told to lay down their tools as the soaring price of electricty made it too expensive to run the mills, according to its owner.

Winstone chief executive Mike Ryan said the mill can’t operation with electricity now 600% more expensive than it was in 2021.

After that temporary two-week shut down, Winstone chief executive Mike Ryan confirmed he planned to shut the two mills indefinitely.

Hui orgniser Liz Brooker said the mills closing impacts the entire region.

Brooker said the community needs support.

“We need a little bit of a leg up, and that’s regardless of where this all ends.”

Winstone Pulp International’s proposal impacts around 230 jobs.

Kemp Dryden (Ngāti Rangi) said the situation facing the community is “a bit more than a judder bar, it’s pretty big”.

Dryden said hui are also being held within the mills and the company’s process is due to finish on on September 9.

WPI management and MP Suze Redmayne were at the meeting.

After initial introductions, media were asked to stop recording so that people could speak in a safe space.

Ruapehu District mayor Weston Kirton said he was confident the Government will address the immediate concern and “put a package together that sees the lights being turned on again” at the mills.

On Wednesday, electricity generator Mercury said statements that high spot prices for electricity were to blame for the potential closure were “factually incorrect, based on information available to Mercury”.

“Mercury currently provides a contract that helps set the price for about half of the power that Winstone International uses,” Mercury chief executive, Vince Hawksworth, said.

That price is similar to what other large corporates are charged, including New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Limited, Hawksworth said.

“This is significantly lower than spot prices and comparable to the prices Winstone has noted their international competitors are paying.”