Labour to offer S.I. 25p.c. cheaper power

Press, 30 July 1980, Page 2

Labour to offer S.I. 25p.c. cheaper power

i PA Dunedin j A Labour government would offer South Island consumers a 25 per cent cut in’ the price of bulk electricity, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) said yesterday. , ■ The concession, which would apply to. industrial and domestic consumption, would be part of Labour’s regional development policy he told the St Kilda Rotary Club.

“This is not something offered as a plum' for the south. It is part of what will be an over-all regional energy strategy which will encourage regions to use energy sources.

• “Since this differential applies also to the domestic consumer, the money released through income saving will be a stimulant in other sectors of the community.” A Labour government would provide . transport assistance to South island industries, Mr Rowling said. But he did not specify what forms this would take.

“They will be designed simply to ensure that your people, can start on an equal footfpg in the fight for local and export- markets. Such ip-J centives must provide for the movement; of goods to export ports in the!

south, and across Cook Strait.”

Other regional development measures a Labour government would implement included restructuring of all sections of the economy and rationalisation of Government assistance.

But, Mr Rowling said, any change must compensate for assets made r dundant as a result of Government policy, and provide for helping displaced workers into other jobs. Mr Rowling said there was “no way” a Labour government would stand in the way of the development of a second aluminium smelter in the South Island, provided the deal was in the interests of the people of Otago and the nation. He was commenting on Government approval last week for a Fletcher-C.S.R.-Alusuisse consortium to develop a smelter and downstream processing plant. The consortium is looking at I four possible sites, but the [leading contenders are believed to be Wickliffe Bay and Aramoana, both near Dunedin. ' ' . To establish whether such development was in - -the interests of the region, Tylr Rowling hoped to have a meeting with the Fletcher group to determine the price of electricity negotiated for

the plant, the number of jobs which would be created, the extent of Government contribution in the form of incentives and allowances and the security of supply of alumina. He said that Labour must be satisfied with the answers to those key questions, “and we must ensure there is the right to review the final deal at some future date.”

“While I am very deliberately pointing out the question marks that hang over this project, we are certainly not in the business of sabotage,” he said. But, Mr Rowling said, the smelter would not provide any sort of salvation for the South Island. “A handful of energy-based, high technology projects the smelter included, will never represent a secure future for this country.' ; The only road ahead, is to build back to real internal growth over a broad front, by the shrewdest possible combination of Government, private, and, where applicable, overseas investment.”

i Development potential in : the South Island, Mr Rowling said, lay in the small business sector. This was where a Labour government’s regional development; policy would be directed. t