Senator Dean Smith – Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury – Transcript – ABC Drive with Gary Adshead
SENATOR DEAN SMITH SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY LIBERAL SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA TRANSCRIPT – ABC DRIVE WITH GARY ADSHEAD Topics: Whyalla Steelworks, RBA rate cut, mortgage stress under Labor, BHP CEO IR comments, North-West Shelf delays E&OE GARY ADSHEAD: Okay, first up and we’re watching just on the TV at the moment, actually, we were just glancing there. Whyalla Steelworks. Madeleine King, this is of course, you know, historically a major steelworks in South Australia. Are there any implications for the Federal Government in the fact that this will now be forced into administration by the South Australian Government? MADELEINE KING: Well, it’s a very important step that the South Australian Government has taken under the leadership of the Resources Minister Tom Koutsantonis and, of course, Premier Malinauskas. This is a great industrial city in South Australia. It’s important that the South Australian Government stepped in so that they could save those jobs and look for a future for Whyalla, as it has had some poor management decisions, to say the least. Obviously we as a Government have been closely in contact with the South Australian Government about the Whyalla Steelworks and I have no doubt there’ll be more to be said about our assistance in this regard in the future. But, right now, we’re totally in line with Premier Malinauskas and his intentions to save the steelworks, but also to save the jobs of all those workers, which is really important. There’s been a lot of doubt around this, and doubt creates a lot of tension in the community and that needed to end. GARY ADSHEAD: Is there potentially any way that the Federal Government would be asked to sort of come in with funding to try and save it in the meantime? Because if it goes into administration, then obviously first thing is creditors that have to be looked at and so on, and then you have to work out whether there’s another operator that would come in and run it. But, in the meantime, there might be a need for the Federal Government to commit to funding, yeah? MADELEINE KING: Well, there’s a lot of options being looked at. The preference, of course, is always that the private operators, you know, invest in projects. Like it’s not a project, it’s a longstanding facility, the Whyalla Steelworks. And I have no doubt that is exactly what’s going on right now is seeking other investors and experienced steelwork operators. There are a number of them around the world. What we really want to concentrate on is making sure the community is reassured that the steelworks can continue, but that will, that will take a lot of effort. The South Australian Government has stepped up and will step up alongside with them to make sure the Whyalla Steelworks survives, and that will involve talking to other operators around the world and encouraging that investment, because we know we’ll continue to need steel and Australia needs our steelmaking capacity to continue. GARY ADSHEAD: Is this a bipartisan view that, you know, saving this particular steelworks is important? Or are there politics at play here? DEAN SMITH: There’s no doubt that the Whyalla steel mill is critical to Australia’s sovereign capability. I think 75% of the steel production of Australia’s steel production comes from Whyalla. A thousand jobs at risk here. You know, I think the town has 20 to 25,000 people, so there’s no doubt that this is an important piece of national and South Australian infrastructure. But we are at the beginning of this, there’s no doubt about that. I think there are some questions. Why is it only now that the South Australian Government might be choosing to step into this? I mean, there have been issues around the Whyalla operation for a considerable period of time, not just the operator, but in terms of its, sort of the technology that it uses, etcetera. I think the furnace has been out of action. I would worry how deeply South Australian taxpayers and perhaps even Commonwealth taxpayers might be drawn into this. You know, we would prefer to have private operators of large industrial developments like this. Of course, we know that the international dynamics around steel manufacturing are changing and changing very, very competitively. So, this actually could be the beginning of what could be a bad outcome. Just because steel production is getting more expensive, we don’t know the full impact of tariffs, for example, we don’t know what is going to be the nature of changing Chinese demand. I suspect this has got a long way to run yet. GARY ADSHEAD: 132 720. I have with me Madeleine King, the Resources Minister, Dean Smith, the Liberal Senator. If you want to get involved in the conversation, feel free to give us a call right now and we’ll put you through. Our interest rate cut. It’s been a long time coming. When’s the Federal election? Because you’ve been waiting for it, haven’t you? DEAN SMITH: I’m looking intently at Madeleine as well. MADELEINE KING: I mean, we’ve had this conversation a few weeks running. And, even in the room, we’re having the same… GARY ADSHEAD: Now we can look at each other in the eyes. But no, seriously, though, I mean, this is important for the Government settings in terms of going into an election campaign. To see that interest rates have finally been eased up somewhat. MADELEINE KING: But more importantly, and much more importantly, it’s in the interests of Australians, particularly mortgage holders, of which there are many. My electorate has one of the highest rates of people with a mortgage in the country. So, it is really important for people, you know, everyday families and workers right around the country. So, that really is the focus and that’s where the benefit accrues to. But it’s a benefit that, you know, the hardworking women and men of Australia have earned through…