GFG Alliance

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (14:49): My question is to the Treasurer. Has the government received any advice about whether any financial instability of GFG may delay the installation of the electric arc furnace and associated infrastructure beyond 2027?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (14:49): It's not necessarily just a matter of us receiving advice. Of course, as we all know, in recent times GFG has had to go through a significant financial restructuring after the collapse of its Greensill financing arrangements, and they have had to find alternative financing in a relatively short period of time to make sure that not only could they continue to operate this part of its operations here in South Australia but presumably do so in other parts of their global operations. So we are absolutely aware of that and, of course, we have all seen the reports, and the member for Flinders quoted a recent one in yesterday's Financial Review to that effect.

We are very, very keen and very focused on making sure that the steelworks succeeds into the future. That is our priority. It is for the steelworks' operations, its productivity, its capacity to continue producing these steel products, which the rest of our country and other countries rely on, and that the workers can be gainfully employed. That's our focus and we will continue pursuing that aim. The federal government has made funding commitments for GFG to invest in that. We have maintained, as I have previously explained to the house, a $50 million commitment that was initially made during the term of the previous Weatherill government by the member for West Torrens that is available to be deployed to invest in new capital equipment and improvement at the steelworks.

The electric arc furnace, I think that the member for Flinders mentioned, of course has been delayed, and that is a concern not only to the state government but to the people of South Australia. We want the steelworks to succeed and we are working hard to make sure that we understand what opportunities the state government has got to best ensure the steelworks can survive into the future.