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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-04 Daily Xml
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Whyalla Steelworks

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:27): It has been 55 years since the commissioning of the steelworks in Whyalla. Generations of workers, many thousands of workers, including three generations of my family, have worked at the steelworks. It has a proud history and with the right steps it will have a strong future. Whyalla has the only integrated steelworks in Australia that produces structural steel and rail. It is a fundamental part of Australia's manufacturing base. It provides products that make an essential contribution to our construction sector and our rail network and it has done so for many years.

As Australia's only integrated steelworks producing structural steel and rail, the Whyalla Steelworks is part of our sovereign manufacturing capacity. It is strategically important, especially in a world that is increasingly in a state of flux. COVID-19 has hammered home the risks associated with an overdependence on overseas supply lines. What we have in Whyalla is Australian jobs producing Australian steel with Australian iron ore for the Australian market. Let me repeat that: what we have in Whyalla is Australian jobs producing Australian steel with Australian iron ore for the Australian market. Long may it continue.

Do we want to export those jobs? Do we want to depend on overseas steelmakers for a range of structural steel grades and rail? My answer is no. It is not in our nation's long-term public interest to see the end of value-adding to Australian iron ore. It is not in our national interest to see the end of steel production in Whyalla. We need to put the steelworks in Whyalla on a financially sustainable footing, and that will require a major capital injection to modernise the plant.

That will need a partnership between government and private enterprise beyond the $50 million that was committed prior to a successful bidder by the previous Labor government. There is a technology path to sustainability, to financial sustainability. Elements of that have been publicly canvassed: a new mill to extend product range and double-finished product production is one element, an electric arc furnace is another element and there are other options as well. Any upgrade has to take seriously the need to continue adding value to our iron ore and how that is best done.

For Whyalla and our state, much is at stake. The GFG operations in Whyalla represent 43 per cent of Whyalla's economy and 42 per cent of Whyalla's employment, with 3,471 full-time equivalents. Direct and indirect labour pumps $301 million into our economy on a yearly basis. GFG in Whyalla is responsible for $1.8 billion in expenditure. The steelworks itself directly employs over 1,600 people.

In April, I drafted a letter to the Premier and to the Prime Minister. With a few minor modifications, that letter was also signed off by the Leader of the Opposition and we have received a response from the Premier. I acknowledge that the company has its feasibility study and its work before the government at the moment, and I acknowledge the commercial sensitivities and confidentiality surrounding that, but what is needed now is vision.

Look at Thomas Playford: the vision that existed back then to create an integrated steelworks at Whyalla with incredibly strong bipartisan support at the time led to an industry that has helped this country and employed thousands and thousands of people. We need a similar vision today to give the Whyalla Steelworks a strong future, a future that will serve the workforce and a future that will serve our nation.

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