The Green Party wants to turn Kinleith Mill into a bio-hub, and nationwide construction timber producers could see a future NZ government take ownership of the struggling site. Chlöe Swarbrick, the Green Party’s co-leader, was in Tokoroa, where she launched her party’s Green Industrial Strategy, which includes grand plans for forestry on the North Island.
It is all part of a new NZ $8 billion plan to create more than 40,000 government-funded jobs in infrastructure, state house building (including 35,000 state-built houses), and tree planting, which will take the country’s future out of the hands of “international shareholders.”
Swarbrick said the party’s Green Industrial Strategy “will focus on cross-laminated timber for construction to get this industry up and running,” adding that Kinleith Mill, which will stop producing paper next month, would be at the centre of the strategy. The strategy calls for the Central North Island to become a hub for sustainable wood products, and the resulting biomass waste is helping to shift the country away from fossil fuels.
“Timber residues not suitable for higher value products will be used for wood pellets and biofuels, providing alternatives to coal and diesel. The forestry and wood processing industry is well-positioned to take advantage of new opportunities. As part of the green industrial strategy, these will be actively supported to grow, creating new opportunities and lines of work.”
The NZ Green Party’s Green Industrial Strategy
On the plan, Swarbrick told the Waikato Times that one option for Kinleith could be its return to government ownership: “With this public investment could come public ownership and control—for the people, by the people.”
“Where we are seeing substantive government investment, there should be a return of public ownership and public control of these things.”
South Waikato mayor Gary Petley said a previous Labour Party-led government had discussed the biomass part of the plan at Kinleith, but nothing had come of it: “The thing I like about what they are doing is they are showing us their plans; otherwise, all we have heard is talk.”
“I’m happy they have given it some thought, and I’m quite positive that if they can become part of a government, this would work. But, there’s a lot of water to go under that bridge before we get too excited,” Petley said.
According to E Tū Union senior negotiator Joe Gallagher, once the latest round of job cuts at the mill is completed, fewer than 180 staff will be left at the site, a far cry from the more than 4000 jobs when the mill was operating at its peak in the 1980s.
Kinleith Mill Could Produce Mass Timber After Upgrade – Study
In late 2023, Wood Beca published a feasibility study, supported by the previous Labour government, revealing that the mill, one of NZ’s largest, could produce cross-laminated timber panels after a significant upgrade.
At the time, Oji Fibre Solutions CEO Jon Ryder said the study was a fantastic opportunity to look at “increasing value from the wood we grow by making a mix of products, like solid wood, packaging, wood-based chemicals, and bioenergy.”
- To learn more about the challenges faced by the New Zealand paper and pulp industry, and the impact of power prices on the economics of New Zealand’s manufacturing industry, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
