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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-02-05 Daily Xml
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GFG Alliance

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:23): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier detail the contingencies and plans the government has should GFG Alliance enter administration? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: The Premier was recently quoted on ABC saying:

We believed it was a prudent measure to start to prepare for all eventualities, and we now have plans for that, not that we're hoping to execute.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:24): That is a perfectly fair question from the Leader of the Opposition. As I stated on ABC radio and I think I have said in other forums as well, the government has been putting together for some time a range of different plans that may or may not be invoked depending on how things play out at Whyalla. We have been doing that quite deliberately and methodically, and this also goes to the question that the Leader of the Opposition referred to earlier about releasing the minutes of the Steel Task Force.

The work that the Steel Task Force is undertaking on behalf of the government is done through the auspice of cabinet, more specifically our Upper Spencer Gulf cabinet committee, and therefore it is covered by cabinet-in-confidence. That is not being done in such a way to prevent information being disseminated in the public realm, but rather, simply because it is a prudent course of action in terms of internal government process. Beyond that, it would not be wise, on behalf of any government, regardless of its political persuasion, to be planning for things that it doesn't necessarily want to transpire in full public view until such time as it is necessary.

As I have said, while I have also made remarks like the ones that the Leader of the Opposition referred to, it is the government's preference, as I am sure it is everyone's preference, that the first best-case scenario is realised, which is, of course, GFG being in a capacity to pay all of their creditors—of which there are a number—but also being in a position to recapitalise their position in the steelworks and invest in the transformation, which they themselves have publicly said is their ambition.

We are not seeking to undertake any actions that would undermine that effort, but at the same time we are not living in some sort of parallel universe that says that the steelworks isn't facing some challenges under the ownership of GFG. So, no, the short answer to the question from the Leader of the Opposition is that we are not in a position to publicly disclose all of that work. I think it is reasonable for us to disclose the fact that there is an awful amount of work that has been undertaken in this area, because I think that is what the people of South Australia would expect of us, particularly people in the community that the member for Giles represents.

We are not in a position to do that. We are keen and we have actually actively discussed, most recently in a meeting that I had this morning, what more we could put into the public realm that can be accommodated in such a way without compromising the endeavour, or the ambition, which is to make sure that we have a steelworks that is fully functional, up and running, well capitalised and being transformed for its future success.

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