Clayton
COSGROVE

SOEs Spokesperson

6 June 2014 MEDIA STATEMENT
Now almost 900 job losses from Solid debacle

With 137 jobs set to go at Stockton mine, the total number of job losses from the Government’s disastrous management of Solid Energy is close to 900, says Labour’s SOEs spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.

“The loss of 137 jobs is yet another massive blow to the people of the West Coast, alongside the more than 700 other Solid Energy jobs lost.

“With much of its workforce gone Stockton will end up operating under capacity, along with Spring Creek which has been mothballed. National has campaigned on promoting mining in New Zealand but ironically it’s shutting them down instead.

“Solid Energy’s near collapse is the result of years of mismanagement by Ministers and the former Board. Tony Ryall and Bill English were warned repeatedly about the problems facing the SOE but ignored them and took no action, leaving it almost $400 million in debt and shedding jobs by the hundreds.

“This is why the company is in the state it’s in today, reliant on a bailout from the banks and Government, and now a shadow of the export award-winning company it was under Labour.

“If Ministers had taken action earlier many of these jobs could have been saved.

“Tony Ryall is responsible for every one of these job losses leading to his legacy as the most negligent and incompetent SOE Minister in history,” says Clayton Cosgrove.

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