Maui ‘not boon Govt promises’

Press, 25 March 1980, Page 7

Maui ‘not boon Govt promises’

PA Wellington Maui gas would not prove to be the boon to the nation that the Government promised, the Auckland Central Labour member of Parliament (Mr R. W. Prebble) has said.

New Zealand would only be slightly better off using its own gas than importing gas, he told a public meeting in Auckland. “The National Party no longer talks of • economic miracles and promi-ses singlefigure inflation with the good Dr Muldoon, but now holds out a pie-in-the-sky hope that Maui gas will bring prosperity in the 1980 s,” he said.

“What we are not told is the overseas cost of Maui gas . . . that is, the cost of the loans is so high that the

return to New Zealand from Maui gas will be only marginally better than if the gas was actually imported,” Mr Prebble said.

“What makes Maui gas a futile hope is that the skilled tradesmen, the engineers, fitters, welders, and carpenters needed to build the huge petro-chemical plants in order to turn the gas into a form of petrol are no longer in New Zealand,” he said. New Zealand would need to “go further into hock to the world and build the plants overseas, bringing them here prefabricated.” “This means that profits from building the petrochemical plants worth thousands of millions of dollars will go to overseas countries, not to New Zealand,” Mr Prebble said.