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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-09-25 Daily Xml
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State Prosperity Project

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:45): My question is to the Premier. What impact would the scenario of the Whyalla Steelworks being placed into voluntary administration have on the State Prosperity Project?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:45): I appreciate the shadow minister's question because I think the State Prosperity Project very much demonstrates the need for the type of policy that we are talking about here for Whyalla. In fact, to put that another way, the challenges that we have persistently seen around the steelworks demonstrate the need for a serious government policy to set Whyalla up for the future.

The challenges that we are seeing at GFG or to contemplate the hypothetical—we certainly hope it is a hypothetical—that the shadow minister refers to, in the event that the steelworks were to go through a change of ownership, would not curtail the government's ambitions or the opportunity that the Upper Spencer Gulf has around Whyalla.

To put a bit more meat on those bones, the mine at Whyalla sits on a long-term, profitable, economic magnetite resource. Magnetite is a critical ingredient towards the creation or production of green iron and then ultimately green steel. The state government's ambitions principally exist around green iron.

Green iron is an emerging market. We know that steel production is responsible for somewhere between seven to 10 per cent of all global carbon emissions. There is no world where we achieve the Paris targets without decarbonising steel. In order to decarbonise steel, you need a few different things. One of them, of course, is iron ore and magnetite iron ore lends itself towards green iron production far more readily and economically than hematite, which is why already on global iron ore markets there is a significant premium for magnetite over and above hematite. That is already real. It is already baked in. It can be accounted for by simply looking up the price at the moment.

The iron ore resource, which of course is Australia's longest known iron ore resource when iron ore was first found in the Middleback Ranges near Whyalla, is principally magnetite and that is profitable and readily able to be exploited. What we would like to see is that magnetite, rather than just being dug out of the ground and sent overseas, to be used domestically for the creation of green iron. In order to be able to do that, we know there is a role for both natural gas and in the long term and far more desirably hydrogen, hence the government's plans around the Hydrogen Jobs Plan. But we are committed to these plans, regardless of the ownership of the steelworks.

The other thing I would say, of course, is that the State Prosperity Project has at its heart not just the green iron opportunity or the hydrogen opportunity but also the copper opportunity, hence our commitment to engaging with BHP in the pursuit of Northern Water. So there are a number of elements to the State Prosperity Project because it is a comprehensive long-term strategy.

Let me say this: there is no serious economic policy that is available to basically any government or any jurisdiction around the world that will not encounter challenges, that will not encounter issues, that need to be addressed on that journey. That is the nature of serious policymaking. But if you are serious about it, you have to be willing to invest the effort, invest the resources and invest the capital to make sure you realise those ambitions and that is exactly what this government is committed to because we are not just focused on today or tomorrow, we are actually genuinely focused on the economic prosperity of the state in the long term.

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Morphett, and, member for Morphett, when you ask your question maybe don't just yell out all the time while the Premier is answering it. Your next question.

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