Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

The Nick Xenophon Team is committed to Australian jobs and Australian steel. We are especially committed to continue the operation of Arrium in Whyalla. There have been no greater supporters and no more vocal supporters than Nick Xenophon and the Nick Xenophon Team. If the Liberal and National parties were as serious about using Australian steel in Australian infrastructure as the Nick Xenophon Team is, then they would not be talking about their little pet Adani project; they would be talking about $190 billion being spent on infrastructure by state and federal governments in the next four years. The undertaking that Adani will purchase just $74 million—which, you know, is commendable, but is nothing like $190 billion in infrastructure—is only 0.04 per cent of the combined government infrastructure spending over the next four years, a mere drop in the ocean compared to the total of $190 billion over the forward estimates. As of April 2016, when it went into voluntary administration, Arrium owed $4 billion worth of debt. Seventy-four million dollars, if this much-vaunted deal ever comes to pass, will not be even two per cent of the debt that Arrium owes. So I say again: if the Liberal government, and particularly the member for Grey, is serious about supporting Arrium, Whyalla and its steelworkers, it will stop spreading false hope and get serious about its commitment to Australian jobs and Australian steel.

As to the member for Barker, while I am somewhat delighted and perplexed that he has enough time to spend looking at my Facebook page—though I, sadly, do not have much time to spend looking at his Facebook page—I am sure his constituents would much prefer he spent his time focusing on his electorate. However, I digress. The member for Barker is ignoring the massive infrastructure commitment that this federal government has made in this budget. He is choosing to talk about Adani and $74 million and he is not talking about, for example, the $8 billion proposed Inland Rail project between Melbourne and Brisbane. It is a massive 1,700 kilometres, as the member for Wakefield said. It is 1,700 kilometres of dual lane steel. It is not narrow-gauge steel across flatland, like the proposed Adani project, but standard-gauge steel that goes up and down mountains—steel for tunnels that go through hard rock and earth; steel for bridges. Any way you look at it, it will be a lot of steel and, on conservative estimates, 1,700 kilometres of rail would use 230 tonnes of steel.

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