Motions

Whyalla Steelworks

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (11:02): I move:

That this council—

1. Expresses its steadfast support for the people of Whyalla, in particular, to the workers of Whyalla Steelworks and the many businesses which rely on it;

2. Recognises that Whyalla is critical to sovereign Australian steel, producing 75 per cent of Australian structural steel and providing for several thousand people; and

3. Commits to working to secure the long-term future of Whyalla.

In a ministerial statement yesterday, I had an opportunity to outline the government's support for Whyalla and what we were doing, but I wish to again place on the record my gratitude and the government's gratitude for the way that parliament was able to pass legislation quickly yesterday and take steps that were necessary, from all the advice the government was receiving, to protect the future of the steelworks and the town of Whyalla.

I look forward to this being an opportunity, as I know many members of this council have very close connections with the City of Whyalla. Many have spent a lot of time in Whyalla, and this is an opportunity for all of us to express our support for the city and its people.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (11:04): I rise today to speak as the Leader of the Opposition in this place, to support this motion and to place on record that our thoughts are very much with the hardworking people of Whyalla during this time. Mr President, as you know, they are the heart of South Australia's industrial strength, yet they are facing profound uncertainty. Their livelihoods, their businesses and their community's future are at stake and, now more than ever, they need certainty. It is our responsibility in this place as elected members of parliament to stand up for them and to ensure that their voices are heard.

We, the opposition, have been fighting for months for hidden truths to be revealed and for real, effective action to be taken by the government. It was almost 12 months ago in March 2024 when the steelworks first displayed signs of trouble, with the blast furnace being offline leading to hundreds, if not thousands, of workers being placed on a reduced shift schedule without pay and 56 job cuts from GFG mining contractors.

Then, in August, the alarm bells started ringing as it was revealed that several contractors were owed tens of thousands of dollars and a string of shutdowns started amid problems sourcing enough coking coal. It took until September for the government to seek advice from a procurement activity report around the state of GFG and the future of the steelworks if it fell into administration for a second time in the space of a decade. Despite all this, we are only just seeing some decisive action from the Premier yesterday.

For too long, Whyalla has been caught in a cycle of grand promises and shifting government priorities, and the steelworks, a pillar of our state economy and our sovereign capability, is now in crisis. Contractors remain unpaid and whilst we are assured they will be paid, we still do not know when that will be. Families and businesses are struggling with soaring electricity costs due to the state and federal government's policy in relation to energy.

It has become clear that the town's future hinges on clear, decisive leadership and action—something that this government has failed to provide over the last 12 months because they have been too busy, some might say, focusing on hydrogen plans and prosperity projects. Now, South Australia is in a situation where government intervention and taxpayer funds are having to be used to save a city. Gemma Jones, editor of The Advertiser, summed it up perfectly, I think, this morning when she wrote:

We must be more mature and worldly on job creation, driven by private enterprise, rather than government largesse.

Wise words.

Despite what we are seeing globally with private and public investment walking away from hydrogen as an energy source, the Premier continues to refuse to walk away from his hydrogen pet project. In fact, just this morning, the Premier announced that the hydrogen power plant has been deferred and the funding reallocated to the Whyalla Steelworks—another broken promise by this Labor government, and whilst we welcome this broken promise, the Premier is being a little bit cute about it. He is, in effect, kicking the can down the road, and by doing so he is risking taxpayers' hard-earned dollars into the future.

In the meantime, we have seen how the state government's signature hydrogen power plant—the Premier's pet project—has been riddled with delays and cost blowouts. When the Premier and his minister announced hydrogen in 2021 as an election promise to bring prosperity to the region, it was touted as a game changer. This hydrogen power plant was Peter Malinauskas' only energy policy that the Labor Party took to the 2022 state election. A 250-megawatt hydrogen electrolyser, they said, would be operational by 2025 at a cost of $220 million. Yet, today, we know that that cost has blown out to well over $1 billion with not a shovel in the ground, as I said only yesterday in this place. Now we know that the electrolysers will be scrapped, as we suspected might be the case.

The government is still clinging to this hydrogen fantasy sometime down the road, while industry experts around the world are walking away from hydrogen due to its economic infeasibility and risk. Fortescue, Woodside and Origin Energy have all pulled back from hydrogen, citing skyrocketing costs and limited viability.

This is not only about failed policy, it is about failing the city and the people of Whyalla. It is about steelworkers who have dedicated their lives to an industry that built our nation. It is about small business owners who cannot afford to wait any longer for real solutions. It is about young people who deserve a future in Whyalla, not a ghost town left in the wake of government mismanagement. It is also about the people of South Australia, who are battling with record high electricity prices during a cost-of-living crisis.

The Labor government cannot keep shifting the goalposts. In 2021, the Premier's signature energy policy was about using green hydrogen for electricity generation, and at the time the Liberal Party warned that this was unlikely to come to pass. We warned about cost blowouts and time blowouts and, lo and behold, now, when the numbers do not add up, they suddenly claim it was always about green steel and the Whyalla Steelworks.

Peter Malinauskas is using the issue of the Whyalla Steelworks as a convenient scapegoat to defer his more than $1 billion hydrogen project, but the Premier needs to stop being cute. We know that GFG Alliance, the very company that was at the centre of Whyalla's steel industry, had clearly stated that increased gas supply—not hydrogen—is what is required for steel production in the future.

The people of Whyalla need immediate support, not political spin. I urge this government to work with its federal counterparts to secure Whyalla's long-term industrial future—indeed, the future of our sovereign capacity to produce our own steel. With that comes the responsibility to ensure that taxpayers are not funnelling bad money after bad money, because we cannot afford another State Bank disaster.

The government, if it truly intends to commit to the future of Whyalla, must be transparent with South Australians about the real cost and feasibility of the hydrogen plan, which they refuse to take off the table. The steelworks must have an assured, secure and stable energy supply based on realistic economic and technological conditions—because Whyalla deserves better.

It is time to stop playing politics with people's futures and start delivering real solutions today. The workers, the families and the businesses of Whyalla are counting on us. Let's not let them down.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (11:11): I welcome this motion today. I am not going to be as cynical as the opposition today—and I will explain that just a little bit later on, about the part they played—but I want to begin by firstly commending the government.

I think that members who attended that meeting in the Watarru Room yesterday saw a masterclass in political leadership from the Premier, Peter Malinauskas, in making that decision. It would have been a very difficult decision for the government to make, and it is quite clear that they had been working on a plan to place GFG into administration. That would have required a lot of complex legal work and planning on how it could be done, and the Premier explained it to us yesterday.

There is no doubt that the Premier has had a lot of concerns about what has been going on in Whyalla over the last few months. I must say that it finally dawned on the Premier, and also Minister Tom Koutsantonis, that things were quite grave in Whyalla under that flim-flam man, Sanjeev Gupta.

I note that the opposition is now trying to score political points as a result of what has happened, saying, 'Oh well, this is what we have been telling you.' Well, let me tell you that when they were in government in 2019—in fact, I started asking questions in this place almost from the time I was elected about GFG and Mr Gupta's inability to meet debts with contractors and others at the steelworks—each time I raised it, it sort of fell on deaf ears, and this thing was allowed to fester to the point we have got to today. However, in saying that—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Pardon?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: The Marshall government had an opportunity to move in and investigate what was going on at Whyalla, and they did not. In fact, I can clearly recall Rob Lucas always fobbing me off, basically, about what was going on. They were afraid to act or do something—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: You were; you were afraid to act.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: You were afraid to act. The Liberals were afraid to act—

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: They did not act. Anyway, we got to the stage we got to yesterday, and I give the Premier a lot of credit for having the—well, I think they called him the Man of Steel in The Australian today. I have likened the actions yesterday to Michael Corleone, so swift was the hit on Mr Gupta that he did not see it coming, which is probably the way it needed to be done. What happened yesterday has given Whyalla another sense of hope and I think breathes new life and a beginning into the steel city, knowing that they have the full support of the South Australian government and the federal government and that they will not let it fail.

At least the Premier did maintain, along with Minister Tom Koutsantonis, that there was no way that steel mill was going to fail; that was not an option for them. It will continue because of its importance to the Australian and South Australian economy and the importance of having a sovereign steel industry in this country that produces long structural steel, so we had to have that going.

The sad thing is that people in this place watched the deterioration of that place and really did not question what was going on. The Premier made it quite clear yesterday to us that if they did not move the place was so run down that it just would have been closed and would not be able to carry out its business if there was not an intervention. That was borne out by the many people in Whyalla who reached out to me over the years who were telling me that Mr Gupta did not spend any money on the plant. There were no upgrades. He had his massive reveals, which if you could see through them you would understand what it was all about.

I actually became quite suspicious of Mr Gupta in 2017 when he took over the place, and from there on I really felt that South Australians and the City of Whyalla were being taken for a ride by this flim-flam man because money was not going back in to revitalising the plant and contractors were not being paid. He was using contractors as a bank, basically.

Then came the Greensill disaster, which I again raised in this place and nobody did or said anything about that, where contractors were given a discount if they accepted a deal that they would be paid after 120 days. What kind of a business could expect to survive under those conditions, particularly after what the people of Whyalla had been through previously with Arrium? It was just impossible, and you could see where this rusty ship was heading under the control of Mr Gupta.

Now, as I said, there is going to be hope for them. I have not seen the announcements today by the Prime Minister but the Premier has indicated that $2 billion is going to be spent and the much-vaunted green elephant, the hydrogen plant, is now being—I do not think he said he has scrapped it; he has put it on ice. It is just disappointing that the Hon. Reggie Martin is not here because since it has been announced I have kept ribbing the Hon. Mr Martin, saying that this plant would never happen. Anyway, so is the case.

To get back to Whyalla, it is also interesting to see that Mark Mentha has been appointed to oversee the administration of the place, a highly respected administrator who was there during the Arrium days when he saw that. He knows the place backwards and he knows what is required. It is just a pity that the Weatherill government and Minister Koutsantonis did not heed his recommendation back in 2017 that the preferred operator of the steelworks should be the Korean consortium that had put in a bid.

That is what Mr Mentha recommended at the time, but for some reason, only known to Jay Weatherill and Tom Koutsantonis, they overruled that and decided to go with Mr Gupta, and have a look at the mess and costs that decision has resulted in in all these years. It was a poor decision and they should have done their due diligence and they did not. I think they have all learnt from that lesson.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Well, they have, because he has gone. I can hear all the chuckles from the opposition, but the opposition were in government for four years when terrible things were going on at the steelworks and they showed absolutely no interest in it. In fact, they really only started showing interest in it late last year. I think they started to wake up to it last year.

Nonetheless, we are where we are now and the future looks brighter for Whyalla. A lot of people today can wake up with an air of confidence now that their future and the steel city's future has been secured. Again, you have to give credit to the Premier for the way he has handled the situation. He would have been under immense pressure: they had to find a solution, a way to do it, which would have helped the existing creditors at the moment. It had to be done in a way that would ensure that that plant, even through it is in terrible shape, could continue to produce steel and be put on a path to making some much-needed money come back into the community.

Sadly, hundreds of jobs have been lost in the past 12 months. Only recently, I was there on the day that 250 people lost their jobs at the mine when they were working for Golding and were laid off, but we have also seen situations with smaller contractors who were owed probably tens of thousands of dollars, a few hundred thousand dollars, a few million dollars, but were told by Mr Gupta, 'You have to wait until we can pay you.'

I understand that when the Premier was there last week he met with five of the creditors, and these were small to medium business that were owed a few thousand dollars to a couple of million dollars. They were saying to the Premier, 'If you don't do anything, we won't survive.' It was not weeks or months, like Mr Gupta promised and has been promising for the last few months, that things will be remedied and he will be back making money. People cannot wait that long, particularly for a bloke who has bought a mansion on the harbour and was going to spend not $10 million, my sources told me that it was closer to $80 million, on renovations on that place.

This was the sheer arrogance of that so-called billionaire, when there were struggling, battling families in Whyalla who did not know where their next dollar was coming from, could not pay their power bill, did not know what would happen to their mortgages or their futures and were contemplating moving out of Whyalla altogether because they could not afford to stay there. Yet, you had the arrogance of this bloke, who flies in on his private jet, gets out, grandstands, makes incredulous promises and then flies out again.

You only have to look back at all the big reveals that he was making in Whyalla. He makes his big reveals, he gets the politicians up there and you see them all there, standing behind him nodding their heads—'Oh, this is great'—without ever questioning whether this person was actually ever going to deliver. He has not been able to deliver, and it has been quite a painful process for those people.

Mr President, I know you are from Whyalla and I am sure that you would have experienced some of the pain that went on under the Arrium days. You would also have had friends in Whyalla and know how much it has impacted them having all that uncertainty with an owner who was not fulfilling his promises to put money into that steel mill. I think we can now look forward to having the burden of gloom lifted from their shoulders, and I think there will be a renewed sense of resilience in Whyalla today with a lot of relief for them.

I am sure there will even be some relief for the Premier's wife, Annabel, who will probably have an easy night now because the Premier kept saying how he was keeping his family up worrying about what was happening at the Whyalla Steelworks. He has put a lot of work into it and you can see that the government has been looking for solutions for a long time, and certainly in recent times, to be able to come to a position where they can at least guarantee that those steelworks are going to be there.

I hope that $2 billion goes into not just revitalising the plant but also into other projects connected to that plant—not so much the hydrogen plant, which I think is a green elephant, but there have been proposals to set up a ship salvage operation, rejuvenating the two old slipways at the steelworks, which would be tremendous for the steel city because it would provide at least 300 jobs if it comes to bear. On top of that, as we all know, marine steel is of the highest quality, and cutting up those ships and other materials would provide much-needed steel billets for the arc furnace should it ever go in.

I notice that the government has not announced what is going to happen with the electric arc furnace. I will be interested to see what Mark Mentha digs up about the financial state of the steel mill and whether Mr Gupta had ever put down a deposit for that electric arc furnace. If I was a betting man I would say that did not eventuate, and I am sure that the government started to get worried about it last year when Minister Tom Koutsantonis had a meeting with Mr Gupta in Europe, and then made a rush trip to Danieli in Italy to see what the state of play was in relation to the electric arc furnace.

At a recent Budget and Finance Committee meeting, the Under Treasurer and others were talking to us about Whyalla and the concerns that the government had. It was revealed in that meeting that the cost of the electric arc furnace was not going to be the half a billion dollars that we were told it was going to be. In fact, if anyone did any homework, for an electric arc furnace made by Danieli you do not get any change for under €750 million, let alone half a million dollars. But it was going to cost, according to the Under Treasurer, something like $3 billion. That would have rung alarm bells even then for the government to think, 'Where is he going to get this kind of money to put into that place, when he is scrambling around the world just trying to get a loan of $US150 million to stave off some creditors here?' He was just putting bandaids on that operation.

My concern here today is that with this move yesterday that was of such significance, particularly when you have a government and also a federal government being involved in the administration of a major operation like that, that was debt-ridden, what is it going to mean to all those other businesses in Mr Gupta's rust-ridden empire in Europe? Because I would say that after today there will be banks and other lenders to Mr Gupta that would have shivers running down their spine when they see that a government has intervened and taken control of a steelworks from Mr Gupta.

I think there will be some worried faces in some of his European operations, some of the lenders and also in the UK, where Mr Gupta is also facing a possible criminal prosecution. He has bushfires all over the place and these bushfires have been raging for a long time. In saying that, I commend the motion to the chamber, and again I commend the government on its actions.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (11:30): I rise to speak in support of the motion. In so doing I want to acknowledge the leadership of the Hon. Frank Pangallo. I think in many ways the honourable member has been the canary in the mine shaft on Whyalla, raising the issues over many years. Indeed, certainly during the time that I have been in this place he has been a consistent voice on the issue, so I recognise his work on this.

I also want to reflect a little on what occurred yesterday in that I think what was really significant about the events that unfolded in the parliament is that you saw all sides of politics working together to confront what is a significant issue facing our state. Everybody put party politics aside, and we worked together for the common good. It does not always happen—it is not always possible for us to move outside our political party lenses—but yesterday it did happen.

I think that is a good thing for politics in our state. I think it speaks to the integrity of our system, and I think it is actually what the people of South Australia want from us when we are confronting challenging situations like the one that has been faced in Whyalla. So I want to acknowledge the role that all members of parliament have played in that but of course also the leadership of the government in taking this decisive action, which, as the Hon. Frank Pangallo reflected, I think is welcomed by the people of Whyalla.

I think it is appropriate when we are dealing with industry that is such a significant job creator that there is government intervention. I remember what happened back in 2013 and 2014 with the car industry in this state when we did not see any federal government support for the car industry. As a result we saw the end of those jobs, and that has been a disaster for South Australia and our economy and our manufacturing capability in South Australia.

That has not happened in this instance. I welcome the fact that the federal government have come to the table today with a significant package for Whyalla. I understand—I was reading news reports this morning—that they are going to be investing $2 billion and that the state government is also going to be investing a significant amount of money as well. Notionally, I think from what I have read, the state government is investing a significant portion of the $600 million that was originally planned for the green hydrogen project.

The Greens welcome that public investment in Whyalla. Our view is, though, that public investment should result in public equity in any business that is going to be running the steelworks so that we do not find ourselves in this situation in the future where we are trying to dislodge a private business that is not effectively running the steelworks. What we would like to see in the future is a long-term pathway for Whyalla. Public investment should result in public equity.

In speaking to this motion I note that the people of Whyalla have endured repeated threats of job losses and economic hardship over the past decades. I first went to Whyalla in 2015 as part of the campaign the Greens were running at the time against the TPP—the Trans-Pacific Partnership—which a lot of people in Whyalla were concerned about because of the impact it would have had on procurement policies, particularly sovereign steel. There have been so many challenges that the people of that community have had to deal with over several decades.

Indeed, almost nine years ago, the then owners of the steelworks, Arrium, entered administration with debts of $2 billion and, once again, plunged the town into turmoil until the steelworks were purchased by Mr Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance. We now know how that ended up. Given his financial failures and the fact that he is subject to regulatory investigation around the world, it is clear that Mr Gupta was never going to be giving the long-term solution that was needed for the steelworks. State and federal governments must now, of course, continue to work together on a solution for Whyalla.

Last week, the Greens wrote to the Premier, the Hon. Peter Malinauskas, and the federal Minister for Industry and Science, the Hon. Ed Husic, urging them to work together to protect steel production in Whyalla, including protecting jobs and the community from any negative economic consequences. We have, therefore, been pleased to see the actions that have been taken in recent days, and we welcome the support that is flowing from both the federal government and the state government.

It is critical that we preserve Australia's sovereign capability in steel production into the future. We know, as we face significant supply chain delays because of what is unfolding overseas, that we cannot rely on being able to import steel. We need to be able to make it here, and South Australia has a vital role to play in that space. We know that Australian companies are capable of producing very high-quality steel, a critical resource for 21^st century jobs in the renewables and clean manufacturing sectors.

Whyalla's steelworks are able to produce over a million tonnes of raw steel each year, which is necessary for building wind turbines, grid infrastructure and energy storage facilities required to support green energy transition. In addition, the Whyalla Steelworks are the nation's only Australian-based manufacturer of the rail infrastructure that we need to expand the network for both freight and passengers.

I think it is very clear from what we have seen in the parliament over the last 24 hours that all members of parliament, all political parties representing all parts of the state, care deeply about the people of Whyalla. We recognise the extraordinary stress that people in that community have been under, and I think we all hope, collectively, that the events of the last 24 hours will provide them with some reprieve, and it is our hope that this will set that region on a pathway for long-term sustainability and viability.

Before concluding, I do just want to touch on the reports this morning around the government deferring the $600 million green hydrogen plan so that they can bolster the investment in Whyalla. I actually think that is appropriate in the circumstances. It is appropriate to defer that project in light of what is going on, given the success of the green hydrogen plan is predicated on the steelworks. You cannot have a green hydrogen plan if you do not have a viable steelworks, so I recognise the government has had to take that course of action; however, I do urge them to ensure that public funding in Whyalla and new business also ensures that we are delivering some environmental outcomes as well in green iron, green steel and that technology. That is vitally important as well. With that, I commend the motion.

The Hon. J.S. LEE (11:38): I rise to support this motion, to stand in solidarity with the people of Whyalla. Yesterday, we saw something completely unprecedented in the South Australian parliament. Yesterday, an urgent meeting was called by the Malinauskas Labor government. I was briefed at 10.30am, with other members of the crossbench, by the Premier, the Minister for Energy and Mining and the Leader of the Government in this place, and we were asked to work with the government to allow the immediate passage of the Whyalla Steel Works (Charge on Property) Amendment Bill.

Changes to the Whyalla Steel Works Act were rushed through both houses of state parliament on Wednesday morning, before being signed off by the South Australian Governor. Not one of us disputed the necessity of such swift action and completely understood the need for the steelworks' workers, suppliers, local businesses and broader South Australian community to have certainty about the future of the Whyalla Steelworks.

Under an extraordinary set of circumstances, all 69 members of parliament worked in unison to pass the changes to legislation that allowed the Malinauskas Labor government to place OneSteel Manufacturing Pty Ltd into administration because we all know how much is at stake if the steelworks collapses. It was not just about backing the government's plan; it was about protecting the people and businesses of Whyalla, safeguarding jobs, livelihoods, our state's economy and the remnants of manufacturing in South Australia.

Questions remain, though, about how and why we got to this point where such unprecedented and rushed actions were necessary. GFG Alliance has been in financial difficulties for some time, as mentioned by other honourable members, and the steelworks has been in crisis for months, with well documented issues around the blast furnace and failure to pay tens of millions of dollars of royalties and water bills, let alone delays in paying workers' wages and owing significant debts to the vast range of local businesses and suppliers.

Let us also not forget that it was the previous Labor government who heralded GFG and Sanjeev Gupta as the saviour of the steelworks that would provide the solutions Whyalla needed after the steelworks was last placed into administration in 2016. Some of the questions included: was due diligence undertaken at that time? Were there really no rumblings of the financial challenges facing GFG? The Hon. Frank Pangallo canvassed and mentioned his suspicions from the very start. Alarms have been ringing constantly since September last year, with secret talks and no assurances from the government until this legislation was sprung on Parliament at the final hour.

It is, of course, unacceptable for the steelworks' operation to be compromised and it is also unacceptable for that situation to be allowed to deteriorate to this extent; however, today I want to support this motion and welcome this motion to allow members of the Legislative Council to provide reassurance and steadfast support for the people of Whyalla, particularly the workers and their families and the many businesses that rely on the viability of the Whyalla steel industry.

I thank the government for taking that leadership. It is critically important that the government is now doing everything possible to secure the long-term viability and sustainability and provide a brighter future for Whyalla. I commend the motion.

The Hon. C. BONAROS (11:42): I rise today to speak in support of this motion, the steelworks and the people who call Whyalla home. This motion, as we have heard from all members, is about securing Whyalla's future, a town built on steel and essential to the region and more broadly our nation. As we have heard, the Whyalla Steelworks produces 75 per cent of Australia's domestically made steel. It is one of only two steelworks in the country and the only one producing long steel, which we know is critical for our airports, bridges, rail and essential infrastructure.

Without it, we all know that we would be reliant on imported steel, which is a risk I think we have all acknowledged we simply cannot afford to take. A country that loses its ability to produce steel undermines its own sovereignty, economic security and defence capability. We need Australian steel not just for construction but for our defence projects, ensuring we can build what we need, when we need it.

This is, as we have heard, a matter of national interest, made clear, of course, by the Prime Minister's presence in Whyalla today. The $2 billion package, which I too welcome, is a necessary intervention to prevent immediate collapse, securing the 4,000 direct and indirect jobs that rely on the steelworks.

And we know that this is just the beginning. For too long, as we have heard, the steelworks have been left to age and, from all accounts, investment has been lacking, and now we have a $500 million upgrade that is urgently needed to bring it up to standard. While the governments' support, both state and federal, is essential at this moment, long-term sustainability would ideally also depend on private sector investment. We know that a strong, capable private owner with a vision to modernise operations and expand into future industries, such as green steel and renewable energy, would give Whyalla the best chance to thrive. The potential exists to manufacture on a bigger and better scale, strengthening both the region and the nation.

Mr President, we know and you know, personally, that Whyalla has been the backbone of the Upper Spencer Gulf for many years. We know too well that when any industry collapses it does not just take jobs but takes communities with it: the GPs leave, schools shrink, the netball and footy teams cannot field enough players, the local shops close and eventually so does the pub. A town without jobs is a town without a future.

Whyalla's future must extend beyond steel. The region has so much to offer. For those of us who were present at another function this morning, we heard, for instance, about the role that tourism plays in Whyalla and about the annual migration of the Australian giant cuttlefish, which brings something like $10 million into that economy. We know that the waters of the Upper Spencer Gulf offer some of the best fishing and seafood in the country. There is so much untapped potential in tourism, aquaculture and, of course, small business. But these industries are not the backbone of that economy; steel is, and that is something that we simply cannot afford to lose. The ripple effect for those industries, if we were to lose steel, cannot be overstated.

In terms of our role in this, I was really heartened by the multipartisan approach that we all took on this issue yesterday. That is what I consider a good day in politics and a good day in parliament. We know this is far from over. We know that suppliers are struggling, debts have mounted and the road ahead is long, but the bottom line is that we all want what is best for our steelworks, for Whyalla and for the community more broadly.

But we are not the experts, and it is absolutely our responsibility—and I think we did this well yesterday; we demonstrated it well—to do whatever is necessary to get things on track and to provide the certainty that is needed in Whyalla. South Australians do not walk away when things get tough. Whyalla, we will not walk away. We will, I hope, as the Premier put it yesterday, remain team SA on this issue.

Can I close by commending Minister Koutsantonis, who has of course played a critical role in where we are today, and in particular the Premier for his strong and decisive action. I do not think it matters which side of politics you sit on: there was leadership shown in this place yesterday. The Premier did not attempt to do it alone; he brought us all along on that journey with him. That shows great strength of leadership, which is very worthy of acknowledgement by all of us.

I think it is important to acknowledge that everything he said to us was based on expert advice. That is so critical in this because we are not the experts. We have a Steel Task Force and the Premier is surrounded by all the people who know what needs to be done in Whyalla, so there has to be a level of trust. I think yesterday was a great demonstration of just that, so I commend the Premier and also Minister Koutsantonis for their leadership on this issue.

I think there will be plenty of time for the politics of this over the course of the next year. I think today we need to acknowledge the importance of this decision, acknowledge the people of Whyalla and the sheer relief they would be feeling in knowing that this is happening, and again, as I said, acknowledge the leadership that has been shown.

I also want to give a shout-out to the local member in Whyalla, the member for Giles. I do not think anyone would have felt the heat as much as the local member, who has to front that community day in and day out, would have felt over the last few months especially. I think it is important to acknowledge his role in terms of supporting Whyalla and supporting the steelworks but, also, if the Premier was kept up at night—and I am sure he was; I did say I have never seen sweat on the Premier's face, but I did see it for the first time yesterday—I think the member for Giles has probably had plenty of restless and sleepless nights as well. He is at the coalface of it, so he knows what the community's sentiment would be, and that is not an easy gig by any stretch.

I think if it was frightening for us to hear the advice that the state of the steelworks was now perilous and approaching a point where it was irredeemable—and that was frightening yesterday—then I cannot begin to imagine the fear and uncertainty of the Whyalla community. I hope that we have demonstrated that we can all work collectively on this issue for a better outcome for Whyalla and I wholeheartedly support this motion.

The Hon. S.L. GAME (11:50): I rise briefly to speak on the Hon. Kyam Maher's motion on behalf of the government. This motion correctly identifies the main reason why I supported the government's legislation that allowed the Whyalla Steelworks to be placed into administration. As outlined in this motion, the steelworks is Whyalla's economic lifeblood. Businesses and families rely on it. If the steelworks was allowed to perish, it would take a terrible toll on the city and cause enormous suffering to thousands of people who rely on it for their livelihoods.

We have already heard about the palpable sense of relief sweeping across Whyalla from individuals, families and businesses. We know that suppliers have not been paid and we know creditors are hurting. This includes the government and big business, but it also trickles down to mum-and-dad small businesses that rely on cashflow for their very survival, so I welcome this announcement and what it means to the people in Whyalla.

Ultimately, profits save jobs, not government handouts, so while I have supported this emergency team SA measure—this short-term nationalisation of the steelworks—the focus must shift to ensuring the steelworks becomes viable and profitable, and as soon as possible. That is done by creating an economic environment that allows business to flourish, and affordable, available power sources sustain that environment. The steelworks must be run to create steel for Australia, not to cut emissions and not to be operated as some sort of example of green fairytale technology propped up by taxpayer funds.

In supporting this motion, I emphasise its final sentence, which asks us to all commit to securing the long-term future of Whyalla. This pledge must be pursued with practical, sensible, financially sustainable policies that do not burden taxpayers with that responsibility.

The PRESIDENT (11:52): I rise to make a brief contribution before I invite the Attorney-General to conclude the debate. I am happy to put my hand up to say that I have been advocating for this type of unprecedented action for some time. However, like all of you—almost all of you—I was caught by surprise yesterday, but I am so grateful that every member of parliament, let alone every member in this place, wholeheartedly supported the action. We were, indeed, very much team SA.

I am a proud Whyalla person born and bred, as is my wife. My children were born there. Both sets of grandparents are in the Whyalla cemetery, as is my father. Whyalla is in my veins. The people of Whyalla are proud and resilient, but how many broken promises can a community bear? We all acknowledge and know that Australia needs Whyalla steel; everybody acknowledges that. I for one personally welcome the state and federal governments' support. I welcome everybody's support because God knows Whyalla deserves it. I send my and my family's best wishes to the people of Whyalla. Let us all celebrate the future deserved success of Whyalla.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (11:54): I thank members for their contributions on this important motion. Members have identified the resilience of the people of Whyalla and the need to support the people and the city, but members have also correctly pointed out, for a whole range of reasons, just why we need sovereign steelmaking capacity in this country.

I will echo the words of the Hon. Jing Lee, who talked about the people of Whyalla needing reassurance and steadfast support, and that is exactly what this parliament did, in a quite unprecedented and unusual way. However, extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary action, and that is what we have seen in Whyalla.

I will not dwell on it very long, because the Hon. Frank Pangallo mentioned it, but when we look back at the contributions that have been made I am disappointed in some of the contributions we heard from the opposition. If you went to the people of Whyalla and told them you had an opportunity to express support for them and that, 'This is what I said in parliament,' you might reflect on that and be disappointed and think about how you would do things differently in the future.

Having said that, thank you for the support for the people of Whyalla that has been expressed in this motion. That is what this government will continue to do, and I expect that is what this parliament will continue to do.

Motion carried.