Deputy Labor leader Janie Finlay has called on Premier Jeremy Rockliff and Energy Minister Nick Duigan to secure a long-term power deal for Bell Bay Aluminium.
Finlay said more than 500 workers and their families depend on the smelter’s future, which hinges on a power agreement with Hydro Tasmania.
The Rio Tinto-run smelter’s current power supply agreement expires on December 31 and no new deal is in place.
Hydro Tasmania chief executive Rachel Watson has previously said there remains a gap between the price Hydro can responsibly offer and the price Rio Tinto is prepared to pay.
“Where is the energy minister?” Finlay said on Sunday.
“He is nowhere to be seen. He is either hiding from the embarrassment of not being able to deliver a deal or incompetent to make sure that a deal is delivered.”
She pointed to the loss of more than 200 jobs at Liberty Bell Bay, the departure of Hawthorn and the shutdown of Boag’s as evidence the north is hurting.
Rockliff pushed back, saying the state government had put $155 million on the table over a decade to save Liberty Bell Bay, compared with $15 million from the federal government.
“What is important is that Labor stop playing politics, is they stop whinging and start standing up for Tasmania and not caving into Canberra at every step of the way,” he said.
On Bell Bay Aluminium, Rockliff said a 12-month extension had been provided for negotiations between Hydro and the smelter and those talks were going “reasonably well.”
He said the federal government needed to honour its commitment on green energy credits or provide another form of support.
“We need to ensure that that is realised or some other form of support where we can ensure a federal government, a state government and Rio are working together to secure the future of Bell Bay Aluminium,” he said.
Agriculture Minister Gavin Pearce said he did not want to give “false hope to a devastated community” regarding a consortium involving White Oak and OM Holdings that has expressed interest in buying the Liberty Bell Bay site.
The consortium has asked the government to waive pre-existing environmental liabilities and continue the existing power deal.
“We will always look and play a role to see what is possible when it comes to potential buyers,” Pearce said.
“But I don’t want to give false hope to a community that has been devastated. We need to see more details and those details are very scant.”
Finlay took a different view, saying the government should do everything possible to support the consortium.
“If there is an opportunity to recapitalise that site and get it back up and running again to protect those major industrials in Tasmania and to support those jobs, this government should be doing everything possible to make that happen,” she said.
She said the potential purchasers had been in conversations for months and accused the government of frustrating the process.
“The government have done everything possible to frustrate that process and it’s seen the site tip into liquidation,” she said.
