This isn't what the 'year of delivery' was supposed to be delivering

It had to happen. When the government is willing to give Amazon (market capitalisation ~US$870 billion) a subsidy of up to $300 million to make a Lord of the Rings TV series, that's a clear signal to other big corporates that there is free money on offer, if they can just find a way to put the squeeze on the government. It doesn't even appear to take much in the way of lobbying. If a big corporate threatens some lost jobs, especially in the regions, the government will let them feed at the trough.

And so, up next we have Rio Tinto (market capitalisation ~US$87 billion), as the New Zealand Herald reported yesterday:

The global mining giant Rio Tinto coughs and this country's power companies catch a $2 billion cold. That's the amount of money wiped off their balance sheets following yet another threat hanging over the future of the Tiwai Pt aluminium smelter, Southland's biggest employer by a country mile.

Why have the companies' shareholders got the shivers? The smelter uses 13 per cent of the country's electricity and if they close down their pot lines, cheap electricity will flood the market meaning profits will be lower.

That's just one of the reasons why power generators want the smelter to continue. But the biggest reason should be for the people of Southland where 1000 jobs would be directly at stake with a flow on to 3500 people dependent on the flow-on opportunities of the business.

Tiwai Pt gets a cut price power deal from Meridian, from the nearby Manapouri hydro plant that's been supplying it for almost 50 years.

There's now yet another threat from Rio Tinto to close the plant. The last one was six years ago when it said it'd be shutting up shop at the end of 2016, but decided against it after the Key Government came to the table with $30 million and with a warning from Bill English that it'd be the last bite at the cherry.

If you thought the bulk of the government's higher-than-expected surplus was going to be spent on social housing (or any housing, for that matter), reducing child poverty, or improving mental health, you might want to think again. According to the government, this was the "year of delivery" - it's becoming clear that the year of delivery meant stacks of cash being delivered by the government to big corporates.

Yes, I'm angry. You should be too.