Business options for Kawerau

No one is denying job cuts at the Tasman paper mill will affect Kawerau, but it's not all doom and gloom.

At least 120 out of the 300 workers at Norske Skog Tasman will lose their jobs after the decision was made to halve newsprint production at the Kawerau mill.

Eastern Bay of Plenty Chamber of Commerce chief executive Gerard Casey said an influx of redundancy payouts coming to the town would give those who lost their jobs an opportunity to invest in new businesses.

"I think that there may be some impact, we're not aware of the total numbers of losses yet but we're looking at what positives will be coming out of that.

"As I've said to a number of people, it will create a number of redundancies - maybe some of those workers will look at investing in business. For many, the Eastern Bay is their home, they won't want to leave the area."

He said transport and logistics, forestry and energy projects were being created by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and were developed based specifically on Kawerau.

Although Norske Skog were closing down half of the newsprint production at the mill, Mr Casey said they still had geothermal power capabilities to be developed.

Kawerau Mayor Malcolm Campbell said that while the loss of jobs would be felt, it would not be a death blow for the town.

He said the council had discussed the consequences of a mill closure 10 years ago.

"We have been working with company partners and iwi partners as to how to rectify that problem. There has been de-manning since then and we seem to have got over that quite well."

Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell said businesses and local and central government should work together to consider options for affected Kawerau mill-workers.

"The job losses will have a significant impact on this community. The announcement is typical of small town recessionary impacts having big consequences ... but we should not leave this community bearing the brunt alone. We hope that there will be a solid focus on options for further training and employment."

Additional reporting APN