life after TWAI
The Government will include a funding package in its next Budget to help with the development of Southland’s economic transition plan.
Associate Minister of Finance Megan Woods confirmed that Budget 2021, to be announced next week, will include investment into Southland’s ‘‘just transition’’ plan in preparation for life after the Tiwai Point aluminum smelter.
‘‘The Government is working with iwi and local government to build an enduring regional transition plan for Southland, in preparation for the eventual closure of the smelter. There will be details in Budget 2021 on funding for this,’’ Woods said.
In September, in the lead-up to last year’s general election, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Woods all visited Invercargill to outline the Labour Party’s plans for Southland.
Labour wanted to try to keep the smelter open for three to five years while Southland leaders looked to help develop other industries and in turn create replacement jobs for the region.
In January this year, the smelter company’s majority owner, Rio Tinto, announced its plan to keep the smelter open until December 2024.
A pre-election promise from Labour was to slice off part of a $5 million just-transition unit fund to build a transition plan for Southland.
In Robertson’s pre-Budget speech at a breakfast event in Auckland yesterday, he said ‘‘securing a just transition as we shift to a low-emissions economy’’ was a key objective for Budget 2021.
In a statement to Stuff, Woods said the Government had already invested ‘‘substantial sums’’ into Southland in recent years via the Covid Response and Recovery Fund and the Provincial Development Unit, part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
Gore District mayor and Southland Regional Leadership Forum spokesman Tracy Hicks said the forum has had regular meetings with the just-transition unit run by MBIE and the discussions had been positive.
He conceded that everyone wanted to get on with it and expected they were not too far away from having more detail about how the just transition plan would work.
Hicks acknowledged the next three years were important for Southland. ‘‘The ball is in our court, really. We’ve
‘‘The Government is working with iwi and local government to build an enduring regional transition plan for Southland, in preparation for the eventual closure of the smelter.’’ Associate Minister of Finance Megan Woods
been told Tiwai will be closing in 2024,’’ he said. ‘‘While it might not look like a lot is happening, there is a lot going on in the background.’’
Hicks said plenty of potential options had emerged, in terms of a replacement industry for the smelter, but it was important to work through just what stacked up.
Green hydrogen production continues to be touted as a strong prospect. Green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy and there will be an abundance available from the Manapo¯uri hydro power station if the smelter at Tiwai Point does close.
Leading energy companies Meridian Energy and Contact Energy have co-funded a $2m feasibility study to investigate the potential of a large-scale, renewable hydrogen production facility in the lower South Island.
It was revealed last week that Australian mining giant Fortescue Metals Group had expressed an interest in the Tiwai Point site for hydrogen production.
On top of Southland leaders’ meetings with MBIE’s just-transition unit, Hicks said they also met with Rio Tinto’s new aluminum chief executive, Ivan Vella, last week.
Hicks said the meeting was different from other discussions they have had with Rio Tinto officials, and he was encouraged by it. Hicks said Vella had told them he wanted to do right by the region.
When asked if Hicks felt the smelter might in fact continue beyond December 2024, he said that would ultimately come down to the relationship between Rio Tinto and Meridian Energy.
Southland leaders have been told the smelter is closing in December 2024 and Hicks said they haven’t been advised otherwise.