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

As Christmas nears, it gives me great joy to be delivering good tidings to Whyalla. In fact, we have announced a 14,000-tonne rail order for the Inland Rail, for Parkes to Narromine—something I am sure you're very pleased about, Mr Deputy Speaker Coulton. The order will be worth around $20 million and it'll be coming from Liberty OneSteel in Whyalla.

This is further proof that the government investment in infrastructure is flowing right down the chain and supporting jobs back in my electorate. In fact, the total amount of steel rail needed for the Inland Rail will be 262,000 tonnes, and I look forward to that project continuing to place those orders in Whyalla. This will also give extra life to the ARTC flash-butt-welding facility in Port Augusta, where these rails are welded into the lengths in which they are needed for the job at hand.

It was also a great pleasure to catch up with Sanjeev Gupta, the man who is now seen, I guess, as the godfather of Whyalla. I managed to march with Sanjeev and his family in the Whyalla Christmas pageant a couple of weeks ago. Marching with him sort of reminded me of where Michael Jackson used to come from—the people were clapping and cheering as he went down the street.

This has really given a great new sense of purpose and confidence to the city. It's taken a while to crank up, but it's all good news. The Commonwealth government stands ready with Liberty OneSteel to make sure that we build a great future there.