Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I was very happy to receive a call from the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Greg Hunt, from Korea, to inform me that he had just had a meeting with Posco in relation to possibly purchasing the Whyalla steel and iron ore works. I can tell you, and I have told this parliament many times, just how important it is to keep this industry going, not only for Whyalla's future but for Australia's future. Now, there is nothing given in this game, but the industry minister informs me that there are a number of other inquiries in the pipeline, and those meetings in particular were very fruitful. I am very encouraged by that, and I have been giving this message back to the people of Whyalla.

Of course, from the government's point of view, it comes on the back of the fact that we have done a lot of work in the antidumping field, and we have put $50 million into a beneficiation plant, $20 million into a jobs and employment package in the region and an 80,000-tonne order for the Adelaide-Tarcoola railway line. And let me say that it was only last week that Arrium announced they were putting another shift and 44 extra workers on the rolling mill because that mill is flat out building that iron for that plant as we speak. It comes on the back of the workers having a reassessment of the new EBA. They have reduced their wages by 10 per cent. I think things are very positive for the future.