Party against second smelter

Press, 15 May 1981, Page 3

Party against second smelter

1 Parliamentary reporter The Labour Party effectively gave a lead to its Parliamentary Wing yesterday by coming out strong against the building of the second aluminium smelter at Aramoana. The Parliamentary wing of the party has gone no further than to say that it would re-examine the proposal. The remit passed by the conference yesterday asked the Labour Party to also “repudiate, immediately on becoming the Government, any previous agreements to build such a smelter.” Speaking to the remit, Mr M. Cullen (St Kilda) said Labour was losing votes in the south because of its ambivalent stand on the smelter, which should be dropped in favour of projects creating jobs, he said. The conference voted in favour of an addition to the remit, saying that the smelter should be abandoned

’• “subject to the inclusion in party policy of specific alternative employment projects for the Dunedin area.” Delegates also asked that a future Labour government tell New Zealanders what percentage of their electricity charges was being used to finance the development of hydro-electric plant to supply power to smelters. The conference went further than the promise of Labour’s Energy Spokesman (Mr R. J. Tizard) of tax and Customs concessions on conversion of vehicles to L.P.G. in the South Island, and sought interest-free loans up to 80 per cent of total conversion costs, to be repayable over three years. It asked that taxes and Customs duties be completely removed from all conversion componentry, for a maximum percentage retail price of L.P.G. and C.N.G. in relation to petrol, and for maximum use of L.P.G. in the South Island.