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Ryan Bridge: We don't have the money for corporate welfare · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A sixty million dollar corporate welfare check for golden based
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: cement is fixing a symptom, but not the disease. It's
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: papering over the cracks. It's taxpayer money. It's not alone,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: it's free money. Owner Fletcher Building has agreed in return
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to keep the thing open until twenty forty at a minimum,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and invest one hundred and fifty million phased over time.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: No doubt cement is important for building the country. But
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: so was refined oil. We offshowled that. So is milled timber,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: which we are letting go. So is food production, which
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: we're letting fall over two. This is the problem with welfare.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Once you start handing it out, everyone wants a piece
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: of the pie. Fletcher Building is a conglomerate listed both
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: here and on the ASX. The results are due out
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: next month, which will now be watched very closely. Last
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: week the company increased its earnings guidance and turned a
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: forty five million dollar profit in the half year to December. Sure,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: it's not without its problems. We've kept you updated on
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: their reg structures, the legacy issues, the general state of construction.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: The only reason the government is doing this though, in
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: my view is because, like there are other examples of
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the paper mills and the watties and what have views,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: this one's caused not just by the price of labor
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: and energy going north. It's the ETS. Fletcher's buyers credits
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to emit carbon while making its cement. This cost made
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the Northern plant unviable, dead man walking. You can import
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: cheap cement from offshore where they don't pay for these emissions,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: which makes them a cheaper option, and we get undercut.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: The government reckons they want went with a bailout here
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: rather than changing the ETS rules because they didn't want
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: companies lining up for handouts. But that is exactly what
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: will happen anyway. Any plant at risk of closure paying
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: for emissions is now fair game. This might look like
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: a small ish payment to a single business, but it's
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: actually a blank check they've just signed. With the election
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: around the corner, and guess what the sky's the limit.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: For more Family Edition with Ryan Breh, listen live to
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: News Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.