Steel Industry

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:37): A supplementary, sir: given the Treasurer's answer, will the government commit to using Australian-standard steel in the forthcoming upgrade to the O-Bahn?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (15:37): What we have announced is a new policy that is prospective, not retrospective. I will take the question with a bit more sympathy if the opposition were not planning, if elected, to cancel a whole range of infrastructure projects like the Torrens to Torrens which is using a lot of Australian steel. So I find the question quite frankly to be not quite authentic because the truth is this: we are investing in public transport and the opposition do not like it. They do not like us investing in public transport and, quite frankly, I am proud of our investments in public transport. We will be doing all we can to make sure that the $10 billion spend that we have uses the policy that we have in place for the procurement of Australian steel.