When it comes to smelter bailouts, being a ‘strategic’ asset helps
Boyne was the most logical aluminium smelter to save. The rationale for bailing out some of Australia’s other copper and aluminium facilities is less sound.
There’s an uncomfortable truth sitting behind Wednesday’s $2 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of Boyne aluminium smelter for anyone who believes in small government and the privatisation of essential services.
A big part of the reason that Boyne, near Gladstone, has secured its future before the other Australian smelters is because the Queensland government has significant control over power generation in the state through its statutory authority Stanwell Corporation.
