Tiwai Point shutting up shop

[nzoomed]

Maybe Labour should have given them a $30 million tax-free subsidy, like Key and his cronies did in 2013. That might have helped. Of course after he did that, the lobbyists were soon back at the door of Bill English demanding even more money.

Maybe, the smelter should have used some of their $200 million pre-tax profit from 2018 to make it "financially viable."

Or maybe, a cold little town trying to compete with a global powerhouse like China was an ultimately doomed proposition.

I think the govt have done the right thing, there is not much you can do to keep a large multi-national stay here if they want to leave.
It was on shaky ground to begin with before Covid19 and there is no reason to keep giving them handouts and cheap power just to keep it open at the expense of the taxpayer.

There becomes a point when it outweighs the cost of subsidising them, that money is better off putting the employees into new jobs instead of giving the smelter power for next to nothing.