Arrium

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:52): Firmly cognisant of standing order 107—

The PRESIDENT: Order!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Ms Franks.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The honourable minister.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: You may want to hear this.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I have asked you on a number of occasions now. The Hon. Ms Franks.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Firmly cognisant of standing order 107, I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question on the topic of Arrium funding to the Leader of the Opposition in this place.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: As members of this council are patently aware, indeed painfully aware, Arrium has been placed in administration and the administrators, KordaMentha, have been busy stabilising the business and preparing it for sale. As we are aware, the workers, this week, will take another vote to see if they will agree to a 10 per cent pay cut, to save the company around $17 million a year to help assist the preparation of the sale for potential buyers.

As we are aware, in the budget papers there has been $50 million allocated under this budget through the state government and almost $10 million in a support package for small businesses in Whyalla. Yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament wrote to our Prime Minister asking him to use the money from the pointless plebiscite, at least $170 million that will be wasted on a pointless vote, and put $50 million to save and prepare Arrium for sale and save the town of Whyalla.

My question to the Leader of the Opposition in this place is: will the opposition, similarly, write to the Prime Minister and ask him to put $50 million towards Arrium and drop the pointless plebiscite to do so, and you will have $120 million plus to spare?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:54): Chuck him out.

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Leader of the Opposition has the floor. Give him due regard and allow him to answer the question.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Thank you, Mr President. I will respond to the Greens member's question. As we all know, the plebiscite is a federal issue. I know the Prime Minister will be interested in the Hon. Tammy Franks' views and I am more than happy to send a copy of the Hansard and her wishes to the Prime Minister for him to review it.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Ms Franks has a supplementary.