Labour M.P.s favour smelter

Press, 30 May 1981, Page 3

Labour M.P.s favour smelter

Parliamentary reporter

Two senior Labour members of Parliament have come out in favour of the Aramoana aluminium smelter, in opposition to their party's stance on the issue.

The Shadow Minister of Economic Development and former finance spokesman for the party. Mr R. J. Tizard; and a former Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr W. W. Freer, gave their support to the smelter project yesterday.

This followed announced support for the smelter by the Labour member of Parliament for Dunedin Central (Mr B. P. MacDonell) earlier in the week. Mr Tizard and Mr Freer issued a joint statement to declare their support.

“We see the smelter as a significant contribution to the New Zealand economy, if power is sold to it at a fully economic price and if significant numbers of people are employed in it and in the downstream industries, that result from the smelter,” they said.

“We want to know more about the downstream operations from the operators of the smelter, just to see how they benefit New Zealand and the Otago region,” the two members said.

Mr Tizard and Mr Freer called on the Government and South Pacific Aluminium Ltd — the consortium building the smelter ' — to say fully what the downstream industries would be and where they would be sited. “On the basis of considerable employment opportunities arising from these possible downstream operations, we support Mr MacDonell,” they said. “We do not see the smelter as the only answer to New Zealand’s problems. We see it as one-part of the solution to a range of problems that we face at present. “We want to be sure that the facts are clear to a New Zealand public who will have to back up the commitment to the smelter,” they said. The views of these three are privately shared by other members of the Labour caucus, but the public statement of support is an embarrassment to the party which is officially opposed to the second smelter.

At the party's annual conference earlier this month, the smelter opposition was reiterated and reinforced by the adoption of a ‘remit which, among other things, called on a Labour government to repudiate any agreements for the smelter to which the Government was a party.