Why doesn’t Labour pay the SolarZero staff?

Newsroom reports:

A letter sent by Opposition leader Chris Hipkins to BlackRock asking for assistance to ensure 160 terminated SolarZero staff are paid what they are owed has been met with silence.

Hipkins sent a letter to David Giordano, BlackRock’s managing director of climate infrastructure, on December 4, one week after news broke that NZ’s leading solar panel company was going into liquidation. 

Hipkins’ letter outlines to Giordano the substantial role SolarZero had played in adding capacity to the energy market and his own government’s work with BlackRock to develop climate infrastructure, before broaching the topic of the solar company’s collapse.

“Due to the closure of SolarZero, close to 200 people have lost their jobs right before Christmas. They are concerned they have not received their holiday pay or notice period and several contractors are worried that they will not be paid,” Hipkins wrote.

It was Hipkins’ Government that poured taxpayer money into SolarZero, so maybe Labour should help out the staff?

If they had not put $150 million of corporate welfare into the company, it probably wouldn’t have taken on so much debt, and collapsed. The same happened with Mt Ruapehu. The board would have probably made different decisions, if they didn’t have $150 million of free money.