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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

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:01): Again my question is to the Premier. Has the Premier or his office sent or received any emails, text messages, briefing documents or any other documents to the Hon. Madeleine King MP, the Hon. Chris Bowen MP, the Hon. Ed Husic MP, the Hon. Jim Chalmers MP, the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP or the Steel Task Force in relation to GFG Alliance, Mr Sanjeev Gupta or the Whyalla Steelworks since 1 March 2024?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:02): The Treasurer is in regular contact with the commonwealth Treasurer about Whyalla. I am in regular contact with Mr Ed Husic, the appropriate minister. The Premier is in contact with the Prime Minister. Our departments are in contact with each other. The Steel Task Force briefs the commonwealth government. We are as one on this.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: What I think my young friend is trying to do is to say if he FOIs something and he writes the FOI a certain way and no documents come up, therefore the government has done nothing. That is a genius tactic. I remember that in 1997. It was huge back then. It's 2025. We talk to people. We talk to people, we brief people, we prepare cabinet to cabinet. I also remind—

Mr TEAGUE: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat. There is a point of order.

Mr TEAGUE: Standing order 98(a). It was a very specific question to the Premier about communications from the Premier. It might be criticised for how specific it was, but it begs a very specific answer.

The SPEAKER: The minister is answering the question. If you can return to that.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I also remind the shadow minister—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey and the member for Florey—I am not going to chuck them out—it is a really important subject and I just ask for some quiet so I can hear the answer.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: These cabinet-to-cabinet discussions are between two cabinets about a very important strategic national asset—a national asset. If we are going to start turning this into a 'who cares about Whyalla more?' debate, no-one wins. But if we want to start doing that, I am happy to compare how many times I have been there compared with the shadow minister for energy and mining. Is that what we will start doing?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Oh, okay. 'No, we won't do it that way; no, that doesn't serve us right.' Do we want to compare how many times Peter Dutton has been to Whyalla compared with how many times Anthony Albanese has been there? Is that what the contest is about, or is it about actually looking after jobs, getting a transformation and making sure Whyalla survives into the future? This isn't about political pointscoring; this is about people's lives. It is about time you all grew up.

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