Question Time

Whyalla Steelworks

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:03): My question is to the Premier. When did the Premier first receive advice that the Whyalla Steelworks was losing $1.5 million a day? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: On 3 March it was reported by The Advertiser that the Whyalla Steelworks was losing $1.5 million a day since July 2024 and bled $319 million in seven months before the government intervened.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:04): There are a few different parts to the Leader of the Opposition's question. The short answer to the question, of course, is we didn't officially find out exactly how much GFG was losing per day—and that's an average figure taken over a snapshot in time by the administrator—until we had access to the information. One of the reasons why in parliament in the last sitting week we moved that special-purpose piece of legislation was indeed to provide the very transparency that we had wanted for some time over GFG.

Those opposite, being the champions for business that they are, would well understand that the government doesn't get access to the accounts of private businesses that are not publicly listed. There were iterations of information that were being provided by GFG to us over time, but never the full degree of transparency that we would have liked. We had indications about substantial losses coming out of the steelworks, principally because GFG was telling us that was the case. But in terms of confirmed numbers, that has been facilitated by the administration that this government is funding in conjunction with the commonwealth as a result of the special-purpose legislation we passed through the parliament.

With regard to the Leader of the Opposition's remarks that he made more broadly beyond the question, the inference was, of course, why didn't the government act sooner? The government was very deliberate in its timing in terms of the intervention into Whyalla because there were a range of considerations that we had to put into place. Notwithstanding the challenges technically that the state had to confront in putting the business into administration, we had to do so in such a way that was in concert with the maintenance of South Australia's envied position around the country at the moment as being a good place to invest.

We wanted to work with major partners, who are looking to invest more into this state, so that they understood exactly what the government's actions were and why we were doing it. But, more than that, we wanted to make sure that, should the government take the decision that we ultimately took to put the business into administration, we had a plan to get it out of administration. That of course requires an awful lot of work, not least of which is a huge investment of capital that we know would be necessary for a new buyer to take that interest. I think everybody here would appreciate that that would only be able to be achieved with the support of the federal government.

The federal government in turn had to go through their very substantial processes before they could make a commitment of the size that they did, which is well north of $1.5 billion. All of those things had to be lined up, and we had to do it with absolute discretion being applied to all of the government's deliberations because we knew that if it was publicly ventilated that would allow the opportunity for other parties—and I think it is self-evident who I am talking about—to intervene in such a way that could potentially derail our plans.

Every action that we have done we have done methodically and carefully because that's what governments do. That is what governments do. They don't come out and just make announcements. We don't immediately accept the advice of Gupta. We understand—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: If the opposition spokesperson wants to insert politics, I would simply point out that it was your position that the government should just hand over money to Gupta. We had a different view, and that's why we came up with a thoughtful policy that the people of Whyalla are better off for today.