P.M. seeks details on smelter delay P.M. seeks details

Press, 12 November 1981, Page 1

P.M. seeks details on smelter delay

P.M. seeks details

PA Gisborne The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) is seeking clarification of remarks made by the chairman of Fletcher-Chal-lenge, Mr R. R. Trotter, on the Aramoana aluminium smelter to a shareholders' meeting yesterday. Mr Muldoon declined substantive comment when he was questioned by reporters at Gisborne last evening on Mr Trotter's statement that it could be at least the middle of next year before any decision could be taken on going ahead with the smelter. “What I was told was that they expected to get a new partner before Christmas and I had some confirmation of that just a week ago,” Mr Muldoon said. “The starting time was the middle of next year and that is no change.” The smelter is one of the

main projects in the energy sector of the Government’s growth strategy and has been in abeyance since Alusuisse withdrew last month. At the shareholders’ meeting in Wellington Mr Trotter said that any final decision on the smelter could not be taken before the middle of next year. He said this was because negotiations with the Government, the final economic and financial feasibility studies, and the necessary consents under the National Development Act all had to be finished before a decision could be made. Mr Trotter also said New Zealand's international financial standing was still high, in spite of “expressed concern for recent trends,” and that big companies such as Fletcher-Challenge would reap the benefit when it came to overseas borrowing. (Meeting report, page 21.) Mr Muldoon accused the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) of “kite-flying” over repeated assertions that the Government had been advised by the Treasury against proceeding simultaneously with key elements of the “think big" policy. “He is just flying a kite and saying, ‘Deny it.’ These are tactics as bld as the world," Mr Muldoon said. He declined to be drawn further on Mr Rowling's assertions that a secret Governmeent departmental report had warned against proceeding at the same time with the Aramoana aluminium smelter, the Taranaki synthetic petrol plant, and the expansion of New Zealand Steel. “I made a statement last night and I have nothing to add to it. It is as simple as that.” Mr Muldoon said. At Napier, a rousing welcome and news that endorsed criticism of the Government's “think big" strategy buoyed Mr Rowling’s election campaign.

Inside the airport building he was told of Mr Trotter's remarks that there was no final commitment for the Aramoana smelter to go ahead. Mr Rowling said he was not surprised, and that the points made by the company were a confirmation of what he had been saying during the campaign. Earlier, at Whangarei, Mr Rowling had said that Mr Muldoon had either had a memory lapse or was not telling the truth when he denied that Government departmental reports said that the three major “think big” projects could not go ahead in tandem.

Mr Rowling told a press conference that the companies involved in the Aramoana smelter, New Zealand Steel expansion, and Mobil synthetic fuel projects had confirmed the existence of, the reports. Mr Rowking said he had not asked New Zealand Steel to confirm the existence of the reports “but we had a conversation that inevitably related to what the Government’s advice was on the question.” He had been left with no doubt that the company knew the Government had been told that the projects could not go ahead at the same time “and that they have made their submissions to the Government accordingly.”