Frustration as talks drag on

Gore District mayor Tracy Hicks is incredibly disappointed more progress has not been made to ensure the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter remains open for three to five more years.

Immediately after the October general election, the Government said one of its priorities was to reach an agreement with the smelter owners that would see the plant remain open for up to five more years.

All parties knew a decision needed to be made before Christmas, Hicks said. He was frustrated at progress, given the plant’s future was still unclear.

‘‘My expectation was for this process to be completed well before Christmas. I thought there would have been a lot more progress by now and it’s incredibly disappointing there’s not.’’

In July, smelter majority owner Rio Tinto indicated it would close the smelter at the end of August next year, citing its high energy costs and a challenging outlook for the aluminium industry.

‘‘If that decision is to change it needs to be signalled pre-Christmas, to give comfort to everyone, including their suppliers, purchasers and staff,’’ Hicks said.

‘‘This [plant] is not something you can just switch off, there’s a long lead time involved.’’

He hoped to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson in the next few days to find out what the holdup was.

Major issues still needed to be worked through, including the remediation of the site and a ‘‘fair’’ transmission price for the smelter.

A spokesman for Robertson said a range of discussions had been taking place between the Government and Rio Tinto.

They were ‘‘all commercial in nature’’ so he declined to give detail.

‘‘The Government has been clear for some time that a managed exit is better than an abrupt exit and so we want to work with the Southland community and Rio Tinto on what that looks like.’’

Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds, of the National Party, said she believed the Government had lost all sense of urgency on the matter. Rio Tinto needed to know ‘‘very, very soon’’ whether an agreement could be reached, she said.

In late September, Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern said if her party won the general election it would negotiate to extend the life of the smelter by three to five years.

The party would support Transpower to reach a fair price for electricity transmission costs for the smelter so power prices stayed reasonable for other consumers, Ardern said.

Rio Tinto declined to comment yesterday. But immediately following the October election, the company’s Pacific operations managing director, Kellie Parker, noted Labour’s pre-election policy had recognised Tiwai had been ‘‘unfairly overcharged’’ for transmission costs for nearly a decade.

That Labour policy had also made it clear the newly elected Government would prefer Tiwai to remain operating for a longer three to five year period, and that it would work to deliver a fairer transmission cost for the smelter, Parker said.

A Government spokesman said parliament would rise for the year on December 9, but the Government would continue operating.

‘‘I thought there would have been a lot more progress by now . . .’’ Tracy Hicks