Whyalla

You know, and Adelaide, it gets the money.

Whyalla, which is, uh, the second biggest city, doesn't get much money.

Um, so that's what we're looking for.

Now, momentum is dro-- uh, th, is, is an, a key gradient, and momentum is, is the city going through an undersupply or an oversupply? Is it in high demand or low demand? Uh, these are the momentum drivers of the pie.

[groaning]

Why won't you visit Whyalla and face the 800 and plus workers who have lost their jobs under Labor's future made offshore?

Hear, hear.

Order.

Uh, as the member is aware, I leave tomorrow, and so, uh, I have-

The member for Canning.

Well, if you're not taking it, it's a serious issue for the people of Whyalla.

[shouting]

Not progressed, regressed.

Look at the Whyalla steel yard or steelworks, critical infrastructure in this country, critical infrastructure in terms of providing steel, locally produced steel.

And we've seen this tiptoe, tiptoeing around the Whyalla steelworks, where the federal and state government has been at pains giving the private sector- taxpayers' money to keep the Whyalla steel, uh, works open and now that the blast furnace has been closed down because of, uh, safety issues and its inability to provide, to do the work it needs to do because of its aging, aging infrastructure, we now find the state and federal government trying to sell off the Whyalla steelworks.

Now, if Whyalla Steel is such an integral part, an important part of steel production, which is still critical in this country, why don't they just take it over, make it a public enterprise? It's a-- if they-- if, if it's good enough to be sold to the private sector, who will only get involved if they can make a profit out of it, why shouldn't it be a public utility, irrespective of whether it's owned by the state government or the federal government? And we see this everywhere.

We see this in the Green Revolution.

When I'm talking about the Green Revolution, I'm talking about, you know, move, moving from fossil fuels to sun and wind, you know, renewable fuels.

As one door opens for a regional town yesterday, another closed, creating uncertainty for a South Australian community.

The Whyalla Steel Works has been Australia's biggest manufacturer of structural steel used for rail lines, bridges, and industrial buildings.

The steelworks produces about seventy-five percent of Australia's structural steel.

A significant part of that steel-making process is in its aging blast furnace, a coal-fired oven used to smelt iron ore, transforming it into pig iron that's ultimately used to make steel.

Now, yesterday, it was announced the blast furnace will close, with up to six hundred workers in Whyalla set to lose their jobs.

It's the latest blow to an industrial city that's become used to hard knocks.

Our reporter, Catherine Birmingham, spoke with locals and small business operators in Whyalla to get their reaction to the news.

I think it's gonna impact everybody.

I hope that it is taken and taken as fast as possible.

Now, let's talk, uh, Ed, about Whyalla, the steelworks there, and hundreds of jobs which are going to disappear.

Forgive me, uh, for not following, uh, every little detail here, but weren't we just presented with, uh, prime ministers and premiers standing around, saying that everything was saved, and there's billions of dollars that have fallen from the sky? So how do 600 jobs disappear?

Well, it...

Look, there's a few complexities, and I won't go through everything, but effectively, the blast furnace, which is this 65-year-old piece of kit that allowed, uh, primary steel to be produced in Whyalla, on the brink.

It had broken down several months ago, and it's been confirmed that it will be offline now.

That is obviously critical, that piece of kit, for making steel here in Australia overall.

Now, there's been a big support package, as you mentioned.

Like the Hunter, they're trying to shift the Latrobe Valley from coal to hydrogen, but those multi-billion dollar plans have also fallen over.

In South Australia, the government had $600 million plans for hydrogen at Whyalla, but switched that to propping up the steel plant instead, and there were other projects further south.

And across in Western Australia, a number of green hydrogen projects have fallen over too.

It's a litany of wasted taxpayers' money and failed projects.

They're talking about it, this is a big promise, pumping billions into it.

And of course, while they're doing that, they're not actually firming up our electricity grid and our energy needs in the ways that are necessary.

A classic example being Whyalla, right? We're now looking at 600 people losing their jobs.

That still works, needs an electric arc furnace.