The payment was made almost six weeks ago, and Rio signed a new electricity deal with Meridian Energy, but the move was criticised as the Government shoring up Meridian for its sharemarket float, rather than any concern over saving 3500 direct and indirect Southland jobs.
Labour and the Green Party launched into National, following Treasury's release of documents yesterday, both saying the $30 million was to prop up Meridian's forthcoming float, at the expense of jobs, tax and transparency for the taxpayer.
The 43 documents span correspondence between Treasury, the ministers of finance and state-owned enterprises, Rio Tinto, Meridian Energy and Cabinet's economic growth and infrastructure committee.
The documents begin from July last year to last month. Many sentences have been blanked out for privacy or confidentiality reasons, under the Official Information Act.
The electricity charge to Rio Tinto, which uses 12% of the country's electricity supply, remains unknown and references are repeatedly blanked out.
Labour's state-owned enterprises spokesman Clayton Cosgrove said Treasury did not want the deal to go ahead, and said there was `no economic justification' for the subsidy.
''The Government was desperate to get a deal over the line before Meridian was sold, they didn't even have time to get the tax sorted with IRD, so Rio Tinto got a tax indemnity,'' he said in a statement.
The Government was ''so desperate to stitch up a deal'' before it sold Meridian, that it ignored Treasury's advice and made the subsidy tax free.
''We already knew Rio Tinto was the winner in this deal but it gets worse.
''Rio Tinto gets $30 million, its notice period halved, and cheaper electricity. Now we find out the multinational doesn't even pay tax on the subsidy,'' Mr Cosgrove said.
Green Party energy spokesperson Gareth Hughes said National ''handed over'' $30 million in a desperate attempt to keep its asset sales programme afloat.
Treasury said ''the potential impacts on the Government share offers are clearly significant''.
A report summary says ''The sale proceeds for the Crown would be lower than previously estimated ... [blank], but this would genuinely reflect the fact that the companies were worth less due to the significant change in market conditions''.
Mr Hughes highlighted that in the papers released Treasury advised the Government that ''any request by PA [Pacific Aluminium] for Government assistance should be rejected because it would result in a significant transfer of value from New Zealanders to PA and Rio Tinto shareholders''.
''National handed over $30 million of public money to Rio Tinto, against official advice, in a desperate attempt to save its asset sales agenda,'' Mr Hughes said.
Another summary said: ''Cabinet noted that following a year of negotiation, a revised agreement has been reached between the NZAS and Meridian that significantly reduces the price paid for electricity by the smelter from approximately [blank] to [blank].''
Mr Hughes said ''Again and again the supposed financial geniuses in National find themselves backed into a corner when negotiating with a big corporation, and the public ends up paying the price.''
