'The Nation'
Clayton Cosgrove
Interviewed by RACHEL SMALLEY

Rachel Let's speak now with Clayton Cosgrove who's with me in the studio. First of all you heard what Kerry McDonald had to say. He said there needs to be a deal in the short term to keep this going, do you agree with him?

Clayton Cosgrove – Labour SOE Spokesman
Well we need to see the nature of the deal and Tony Ryall won’t even turn up on your show and explain to your viewers how much of their money he's going to spend. So the government knew about this. Brian Fallow described it I think as folly and craziness to even embark on the SOE sales until this risk was signed off and dealt with, yet because of John Key's political vanity and pride and bloody mindedness to just move ahead, they just disregarded the risk. Now the point is – the point is this which has been missed – if they had not proceeded, signed this off then Rio Tinto wouldn’t have them over a barrel. All Rio Tinto's done is just waited till John Key green lighted the sale of Mighty River Power and then they sprung the trap on this bunch of government amateurs and now the taxpayer of New Zealand is bent over a barrel.

Rachel Certainly Rio Tinto is playing dirty pool, and you heard from Kerry McDonald a moment ago though he said it's in the interests of the country that they do do a deal.

Clayton Yeah but it's in the interests of the country that Mr Ryall front up and transparently, not sort of do a slipshod deal. He's said for the three weeks wouldn’t intervene in Solid Energy, couldn’t wouldn’t, won’t do anything for those jobs, then suddenly within an hour and 45 minutes of this being announced he's on the phone talking about spending a hell of a lot of taxpayers' money on a multinational company that had a positive cashflow of 16 billion US. Now he should front up in a transparent way and actually say to your viewers what the deal is going to be and they were warned about this, and they have mismanaged this.

Rachel Let me quote your quote to David Parker on a statement he has made. He said and I quote "the optimal solution is to walk away from the smelter and let New Zealand have lower power prices" is that Labour's position.

Clayton No actually Mr Parker was misquoted.

Rachel Parker was'nt misquoted he says walk away.
Clayton Well I've talked to him and he was misquoted, what he was talking about is saying there are a number of scenarios, some of which Mr McDonald actually alluded to, that should be examined in terms of Mr McDonald talked about the national interests. So yes intervention, but I tell you the first thing Labour would have done, we would not have embarked on the asset sales which then would have meant that Rio Tinto would not have been able to put the country … No hang on, no no no no, there's one rule when you float a company you sign off all the risks, you lower the risk profile because of course you want to maximise the sale price. Now everybody warned the government, deal with the Rio Tinto issue, get that signed off before you move, and they ignored that and now of course Rio's just sprung this on a bunch on amateurs.

Rachel And here we are today and the government's facing a choice. It can subsidise or it can close down the smelter and walk away, what should it do?

Clayton Well what it's gotta do is be transparent and come clean.

Rachel It has a simple choice there right now it either has to subsidise or walk away, that’s its choice.

Clayton What it actually has to do is come out and say to the people of New Zealand right here are all the choices we have, here are all the numbers that we're going to spend because of course what happens is this. They're gonna move on a subsidy on this company for one reason, not about jobs, they're doing this to keep the sale of the SOEs on the road. That means the poor old taxpayer (1) will pay for the subsidy (2) pay for the higher electricity prices and then Kiwis are being asked to invest in a company they already own. Poor old Kiwis pay ….

Rachel What would Labour do Mr Cosgrove – subsidise yes or no?

Clayton What we would do is we'd look at it….

Rachel Yes or no?

Clayton Well we can't say that until we know the dollars that are in there, we'd look at intervention absolutely, but I can't with any credibility say to you without seeing any of the dollars that Tony Ryall won’t front up about, that we just write a blank cheque. We should front up.

Rachel That sounds like it might be yes, that something needs to be done here….

Clayton Well as I say I would have never put the taxpayers of New Zealand in this position because I would not have sold the asset and not given Rio Tinto the opportunity as they’ve done with Tony Ryall by bending him over a barrel.

Rachel But does that Tiwai Point smelter have to stay in operation?

Clayton Well it's critical, it's critical, but again it's how you do it, and you’ve got to explain to the people of New Zealand what is in their best interests, not simply say we're gonna spend your viewers' money and not tell you about it. And by the way again they have mismanaged this whole thing, they were warned about it, and they just sat there and did nothing.

Rachel Right, we have to leave it there Clayton Cosgrove, appreciated your time, thank you.

© Scoop Media