Ryan Bridge: We don't have the money for corporate welfare
About this episode
Ryan Bridge discusses the implications of a $60 million corporate welfare payment to Golden Bay Cement and its impact on the economy.
A $60 million corporate welfare cheque for Golden Bay Cement is fixing a symptom but not the disease. It's taxpayer money. It's not a loan – it's free money. Owner Fletcher Building has agreed, in return, to keep the thing open till 2040 and invest $150 million, phased over time. No doubt cement is important for building the country, but so was refined oil. We offshored that. So is milled timber, which we let go. So is food production, which we're letting fall over too. This is the problem with welfare: once you start handing it out, everyone wants a piece of the pie. Fletcher Building is a conglomerate, listed both here and on the ASX. Their results are due out next month, which will now be watched very closely. Last week, the company increased its earnings guidance and turned a $45 million profit in the half year to December. Sure, it's not been without its problems, and we've kept you updated on their restructures and legacy problems and the general state of construction. The only reason the Government is doing this, in my view, is because unlike the other examples of paper mills and Wattie's, this one's caused not just by the…
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