Tremain, Garrick, 1941- :Locking horns. 5 April 2013

Shows two bulls labelled Rio Tinto and Meridian locking horns and going head-to-head. At the bottom right two marginal figures quip: "His postal address and tactics are the same" and "Bluff?" Refers to talks between state owned Meridian Energy and Rio Tinto, the owners of Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. Rio Tinto is one of the world's largest mining companies and is trying to negotiate a long-term subsidy to their power prices. Stuff has reported that: 'The smelter is New Zealand's largest electricity user, taking about 14 per cent of all electricity last year. A shutdown could flood the market with excess power and could potentially put a big dent in the profits of generators like Mighty River Power, which is about to float on the share market.' It is expected that Rio Tinto may sell the smelter, but if they close then power prices would fall flat, not encouraging the float of Mighty River Power. The marginal figures pun on the location of the location of the smelter in the town of Bluff and on a suggestion that Rio Tinto are manipulating the government. See Stuff, 10 April 2013.

Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).