Press conference, Mural Hall, Parliament House

SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: Obviously today is a deeply disappointing day for the people of Whyalla and the people who work in and around the Whyalla Steelworks. The decision to close the blast furnace has been a very tough decision for the administrator, obviously in consultation with the trade unions and the two Governments – the South Australia and the Albanese Government. It’s a decision that the administrator has made after a heroic effort by workers, the sub-contractors and firms around the steelworks, with the support of Australia’s other steelmaker, Bluescope, who has been providing technical and real logistical support during this process. I want to pay tribute, really, to that group of workers who month after month after month showed up in difficult circumstances where overwhelmingly they know that this day was likely to come but it’s been their efforts trying to secure the future of the blast furnace that I want to acknowledge. It’s an extraordinary Australian performance that we ought to be proud of and our hearts go out to them. 

It is absolutely clear that this development underscores the reason why the Albanese Government and the Malinauskas Government intervened to take over the steelworks and impose an administrator. The GFG and Liberty groups ran this facility into the ground. Australians should be angry, and the people of Whyalla are angry, that they were sold down the river by GFG and Liberty. Promises were made that were never kept and the damage was done to this blast furnace facility. We've made the decision to intervene. There is a sales process that is going and is underway in an orderly process that will arrive at a commercial owner and operator for this facility that will deliver a bright future for steelmaking and iron making at Whyalla. 

Amanda [Rishworth], of course, if given the opportunity by the House, will address you on the workplace supports that are being offered. There are several months to go where the administrator and workers will be engaged in a process. There'll be joint supports offered by South Australia and by the Commonwealth Government. A support package, [there are] already staff on the ground. Amanda has been leading, with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, as it's become clearer and clearer that this is a likely situation, making sure that we have staff already on the ground in Whyalla, working with these communities to make sure that every worker has got the support that they need and that we are opening up the opportunities with new employers, with support infrastructure to make sure that Australians get a fair go here. And we are absolutely committed, with the Government of South Australia, to landing this process, that the Albanese government and the Malinauskas governments began, to deliver steelmaking and a bright future for steelmaking in Whyalla. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: When you talk about helping people find new employment and so on, are those people likely to be able to stay in Whyalla or will they probably have to move to other steelmaking ventures as well?

AYRES: So, we will work with every individual worker in Whyalla, directly employed by Whyalla or employed by one of the contractors, who loses their job as a result of the blast furnace closure. We'll have an eye on the future of Whyalla, future steelmaking, iron production, mining expansion, the pit-to-port operation that is the subject of the administration and making sure that there are skills and capabilities still there in Whyalla. There are going to be difficult choices. I don't want to sugarcoat what has been announced today at all, but I don't want to talk down either the opportunities that there are there for workers. And we're just going to have to work through those issues one day at a time. It's a very significant commitment from the Commonwealth Government and the South Australian Government to build a bespoke workplace deployment and support package for Whyalla workers. They need it. You know, it's an isolated place with industrial capability. Those workers are going to be in strong demand, but we want to make sure that they each get support. 

JOURNALIST: Senator Ayres, can you tell me just how much of that $2.8 billion, I think from memory, Commonwealth and State support package, how much of that's been expended so far? I think most of the Commonwealth’s commitment is sort of back loaded in that but, yeah, I guess how much of the investment has been expended?

AYRES: Right now, and I'll get you the month figures later on if you like, Jack, but the overwhelming expenditure here has been on the administration. It’s been to support wages, new apprenticeships and rectifying the safety and production defects that were uncovered by the administrator in their process. Dozens and dozens of safety problems that were left unattended over that whole period from 2018. Workers have been completely engaged in that process. There are many more apprentices employed in that facility than there have been for a long time. There is real cause for optimism, but this is a tough day.

JOURNALIST: The Opposition have blamed this closure on the pursuit of net zero emissions. Has that played a role at all in what happened?

AYRES: It was a shameful performance from Andrew Hastie and Matt Canavan just before Question Time. They turned up here after that effort, after their fellow Australians in Whyalla – people who don't just put on high-vis shirts for press conferences but put them on every day and turn up, before these guys have got out of bed, and work hard to secure the future of the blast furnace – Mr. Hastie and Mr. Venning and Senator Canavan came here and said that this was all about energy costs and net zero. I mean, that is a lie. And it's trying to politicise the effort and struggle of ordinary Australians in manufacturing who are doing their very best working together – unions, the businesses, the administrator, the governments, the joint task force, everybody throwing themselves at this giant task – and all these guys can do is turn up and try and use them as political pawns in some contest between One Nation and the Nationals and the Liberals. What they could do, and what they should have done, one small thing that they could have done: go to Whyalla. Turn up and talk to people. Listen, don't yell at them. Listen to the workers who've been working their guts out and have been working so hard to support a great Australian objective. I was pretty disappointed with their approach. I'm very keen though for Amanda to talk about the positive aspects of what it is that the two governments are working hard to achieve here. Thanks, Amanda.

THE HON AMANDA RISHWORTH MP, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Excellent, thank you. Well, look, today is a very disappointing day for those workers on the blast furnace in Whyalla. I would like to, as Senator Ayers has done, acknowledge the enormous work effort from workers that tried to keep this blast furnace going and ultimately the administrator just determined it was too unsafe. Now, I do recognise that, while people are still employed at the Whyalla Steelworks site in mining and other operations, this is obviously a very, very sad day for those workers on the blast furnace. 

Despite it being a very difficult day, this was not unexpected, and so both the Malinauskas and the Albanese Labor Governments have been working to plan for the event if this was to occur, and so we've been able to immediately stand up worker support at the Whyalla TAFE, in which the Whyalla Transition Centre for those workers will be stood up, and the Commonwealth already will have a presence in that. We have announced a $10 million joint package that will include a range of things, including, of course, career support, career transition, skills recognition, and investment in skills upgrades if people want to expand their skills. So, this package has been thought through and will provide a support to those workers and, importantly, their families because we know that these workers are not the only ones affected, but their families are affected as well. Things like wellbeing services and financial counselling will be available as well. Importantly, we will be working with the South Australian Government to look at ensuring workers that are affected, that no longer have work as a result of this closure, will get other job opportunities. 

And so, we know that there has been already interest in a range of different occupations for these workers. These workers are very skilled workers, and already I understand that the Malinauskas Government has said that BHP is looking to directly take 100 of these workers. So, we will be working hand in glove with the South Australian Government, but importantly to support the workers in this transition, to support them and make sure that they get access to everything they need. So that is available at the Whyalla TAFE. Will be stood up today at the transition centre, but also for workers that want to get online on my department, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, there is a support for Whyalla workers page where many of the supports available to workers are outlined there. 

JOURNALIST: Senator Ayres, I’ve got one more question. It's been well, you know, the facility was first placed into administration in February last year. Are you, we still haven't got a buyer yet, are you frustrated by the pace of the administration process?

AYRES: No, I am very confident in the way that the administrator has approached that task on behalf of the two governments, and on behalf of the creditors, to deliver iron and steelmaking, a pit-to-port industrial capability in Whyalla that will serve Australia well in the decades to come. This is enormously important work for the two governments and it's happening in an orderly way. It's a commercial process, of course, but it's also solving a significant, complex industrial puzzle to make sure that all the component parts are put together in a way that delivers a durable investment in Australian industrial capability and keeps Australian iron and steel strong for the decades to come.

JOURNALIST: Is it a problem that, I mean, trying to sell this facility or find a buyer for it without workers last year, and is that like trying to sell a house where there [INAUDIBLE]? 

AYRES: Look, there's been a completely transparent process with all of the potential interested parties on the way through, including the two parties who are engaged in the final process and the right of final offer with the BlueScope Consortium. They are fully aware of the circumstances of not just the blast furnace, but all the other challenges in this facility. That's why the governments have intervened. It's to make sure that we're doing the right thing, hard things, but the right thing, to secure a Future Made in Australia in Whyalla and in that great industrial region. 

JOURNALIST: Elon Musk has warned that AI is as dangerous as nukes. Is that something you agree with? And what should we make of these warnings that are coming from tech companies over the weekend? 

AYRES: Well, the warnings from the various CEOs and founders of tech companies are not a surprise. They are consistent with what a number of them have been saying now for some time, and that is why the Australian Government's approach is about making sure that we secure artificial intelligence investment here in Australia on Australia's terms, but that we're absolutely focused on safety and working with partners across the world to deliver safe AI. The Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute is an investment from the Albanese Government in artificial intelligence safety. It's working within government here to make sure that we're under the bonnet of these frontier models, that we're lifting Australian capability, that we're acting to secure Australia's safety, but the Institute is also working with partner institutes around the world to ensure that we've got the best capabilities here in Australia. 

JOURNALIST: And what do you make of Andrew Hastie's suggestion that we have AI function models embedded in the AUKUS pact with the US? 

AYRES: Well, there is this is a government that is all about making sure that we're investing in Australian resilience, including in artificial intelligence, and the Albanese Government's National Artificial Intelligence Plan and the AI Standards legislation that the Prime Minister announced just a few weeks ago, are a proactive response from the Australian Government to make sure that we're invested in artificial intelligence capability here, sovereign capability here, right through the tech stack from critical minerals and critical metals all the way through to the artificial intelligence systems themselves to make Australia stronger and to make sure that the benefits are spread not just in our central business districts, but in our outer suburbs and in our industrial regions, to make sure that every Australian is safe and participates in the benefits of these technologies. 

JOURNALIST: But are we talking to the US about frontier models? Who are the international partners? 

AYRES: We are engaged internationally with both the models and their partner economy. Thank you. Thanks very much.