A complex deal to bail out Australia’s biggest aluminium smelter may lock taxpayers into an ongoing annual subsidy of at least $300 million a year for the next decade and risks creating a two-tier market for industry because of an artificially cheap power price.
The Commonwealth and NSW governments are several months into a negotiation with Tomago Aluminium over a deal to save the facility near Newcastle, which uses more than 10 per cent of the state’s power but is at risk of closure due to a lack of affordable long-term renewable electricity.