The Green Party wants to convert the Kinleith Mill pulp and paper processor into a cross-laminated timber plant, as part of a wider industrial strategy aimed at creating jobs in underserved communities.
Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick announced the policy in Tokoroa on Thursday morning, taking aim at New Zealand First leader Winston Peters for failing to rescue jobs at Kinleith.
She said the Deputy Prime Minister had insisted on being the only politician with a speaking slot at a public meeting last December to discuss the proposed closure.
Peters said he would speak to the company’s Japan-based owners and advocate on the workers behalf, according to a local news report. He also suggested the Government may intervene in energy markets to prevent “out of control” prices.
Swarbrick said he had failed to deliver on that promise for Tokoroa, leaving the community to the “corporate whim” of Kinleith’s shareholders.
“That night he gave you some really strong words. And then, nothing happened. The closure was confirmed. So it’s pretty obvious why you might think politicians are useless,” Swarbrick said in her speech.
She wants the Government to take an active role creating jobs and industries in regions where private businesses lack the profit motive or capital to do so themselves.
“Towns like Tokoroa have been left to ride the stormy economic waves while the Government that should be steering the ship has let go of the wheel. Short-term private profit—not you, not us—has been allowed to choose which sectors thrive, and which should be left to die”.
This type of talk has traditionally been the domain of NZ First. However, its ability to pump money into regional development has been crimped by its free market coalition partners.
Labour gave the party a $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund in its 2017 coalition agreement, but National called this a “slush fund” and only gave NZ First a $1.2 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund in its 2023 coalition negotiations, with tighter investment controls.
The Green Party may now see NZ First as vulnerable in regional towns which often vote for left-leaning parties, even if the wider electorates surrounding them back National.
Swarbrick unveiled an updated Green Jobs and Green Industrial Strategy policy, promising to be the party that invested in regional towns even when there weren’t profits to be made.
Under a Green government, Kinleith Mill could be converted into a cross-laminated timber plant which would supply Kainga Ora with construction materials to build state houses.
Cross-laminated timber are wooden panels made by gluing layers of sawn timber together at right angles to make them more structurally rigid. It is popular in Europe due to its sustainability, but is often more expensive than other materials.
The plant could also use excess timber to create wood pallets and biofuels to replace the coal which is still burned in many manufacturing processes around the country.
Swarbrick said the whole central North Island could become a hub for sustainable wood products with the recently-closed processing plants in Ohakune, Karioi and Tangiwai all being repurposed with government backing.
This type of work would be led by new or repurposed entities, the Future Workforce Agency–Mahi Anamata and a 1980s-style Ministry of Green Works.
These two would coordinate to develop public infrastructure projects and the workforce to build them, as well as transition plans for workers in fossil fuel industries. For example, it could help workers in Taranaki shift from oil extraction to offshore wind projects.
The Green Party would also bring back the Jobs for Nature programme which provided conservation jobs in areas with high unemployment. This policy was particularly popular in some Māori communities, which can have strong cultural ties to remote areas with limited job opportunities.
These policies aim to build 35,000 new public homes over five years and create up to 40,000 jobs. They were estimated by the party to cost roughly $8 billion over four years, presumably funded through taxes in wealthier urban communities.
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