Tiwai Point shutting up shop

[thephoenix]

Maybe Labour should have given them a $30 million tax-free subsidy, like Key and his cronies did in 2013. That might have helped. Of course after he did that, the lobbyists were soon back at the door of Bill English demanding even more money.

Maybe, the smelter should have used some of their $200 million pre-tax profit from 2018 to make it "financially viable."

Or maybe, a cold little town trying to compete with a global powerhouse like China was an ultimately doomed proposition.