Whyalla Steelworks

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:42): For the first time in his two-and-a-bit-years premiership, the Premier has a crisis of national proportions on his hands. It is an issue that strikes at the heart of our national security, our sovereignty, the country's ability to make our own steel and, critically, the state's economy. Storm clouds are hovering over the future of the Whyalla Steelworks, and I implore the Premier to personally intervene. I urge him and his energy and mining minister to immediately head to Whyalla to meet with and to give an ironclad guarantee to the good folk of Whyalla that, whatever happens to Sanjeev Gupta and his trouble-plagued global empire, the future of the steelworks is guaranteed.

I also implore the high-flying Mr Gupta to do likewise. The hardworking employees at his plant and their families deserve more than the silence and uncertainty they are getting from him currently. It is imperative the Premier contact Mr Gupta as a matter of urgency and organise to meet in person to get to the crux of the problems plaguing the steelworks and whether Mr Gupta has the means to keep his doors open. Nothing less will suffice.

The steelworks is in the middle of a perfect storm, and the Premier and his government need to ensure the steelworks has the means to navigate through it. Some of this is being caused by low global iron ore prices and China flooding the market with cheap low-grade steel, but most of it is being caused by Mr Gupta's burgeoning financial woes. He currently owes contractors to the steelworks more than $100 million, including Golding Contractors, which is owed more than $70 million; waste company giant Veolia, which is owed around $11 million; and Aurizon, the rail company, which is owed about $14 million.

I have also been informed by anxious people on the ground in Whyalla that a major laboratory testing company, part of a global giant with an operation based in Whyalla that undertakes the quality control testing for the iron ore for SIMEC and onsite testing for GFG, has not been paid since March. As such, the company has stopped all testing of SIMEC's iron ore and GFG's onsite operations, preventing Liberty from selling or exporting any of its steel as it is unable to qualify the purity and grade of the steel.

About 50 workers have been stood down, and I am also told that toilets and other common areas of the steelworks are not being regularly cleaned, with workers even having to bring their toilet paper from home, as it is not being provided. Just this morning I was told the steelworks arc furnace is about to be shut down again for six months, for reasons unknown.

All of this is happening while the flamboyant Mr Gupta continues to buy up luxury harbourside properties in Sydney, this time shelling out more than $12.5 million to buy a harbourside Sydney apartment from radio identity John Laws, while he continues not to pay contractors at the steelworks. This new purchase adds to the $34 million he paid for the eight-bedroom, five-bathroom Potts Point mansion, Bomera, which overlooks Sydney Harbour, and the $82 million mansion in London's exclusive Belgravia, purchased in 2020. The nerve of the man.

If there is one positive to come out of this, it is that the situation is so grave that local member Eddie Hughes has finally had the courage to raise his head above the parapet, taking to social media to publicly criticise Mr Gupta. It is about time, Eddie.

The most disturbing part of all this has been revealed by a freedom of information application my office submitted through FOI expert and transparency warrior Rex Patrick, seeking all correspondence from the state government's Steel Task Force that relates to current and future steelmaking in Whyalla. To my utter dismay, no documents exist: no minutes, no notes—nothing. What does that tell you? I, for one, do not know. We know that the task force has met with GFG and Liberty executives; Minister Koutsantonis has told us so. So where are the documents, the agreed commitments, the minutes?

Whyalla relies heavily on the steelworks. It is the town's biggest single employer and many other businesses survive by supplying to it. Without it, Whyalla is at grave risk and so too one of the Premier's biggest election promises, the overhyped world-first green hydrogen power plant proposed for Whyalla, because without the steelworks there may not be any hydrogen plant. Knowing how much populist Pete hates criticism of him and his government, he has only one option, and that is to act.