Federal budget sees embattled Whyalla steelworks as a ‘fiscal risk’

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Whyalla steelworks is still a fiscal risk. That's the assessment in the Budget, despite governments ploughing billions of dollars into a lifeline for the facility. With the blast furnace still offline, there are now fears a permanent shutdown could require more public funding and end in job losses.

Transcript

00:02It's the beating heart of the Wyala Steelworks, but with the blast furnace currently flatlining the Treasurer has turned his

00:09mind to the worst case scenario.

00:11This is a blast furnace that has been mistreated for most of its life and we are reaching near the

00:17end.

00:18The Steelworks Administrator Cordamentha hoped to get the blast furnace back online by the middle of this month, but that

00:25now appears unlikely.

00:26If the blast furnace is unable to be saved, then we're going to have to have obviously talks about what

00:33we did with the employees pending the recapitalisation and the sale.

00:37The Steelworks are still listed as a fiscal risk in the Federal Budget Papers.

00:42It's prudent to actually classify this as a risk because the amount of money that needs to be invested is

00:50to a certain degree unknown.

00:51Wyala is hanging on the prefaces here and we want the sale to complete.

00:57The Federal Government plans to spend more than $400 million over two years to support the Steelworks through administration as

01:05part of a growing $2.6 billion state and federal funded Wyala rescue package.

01:10Also in the budget for SA, $230 million over 10 years for local roads, $77 million for an Adelaide cancer

01:18centre and $800,000 a year for Adelaide Zoo's pandas.

01:23The Federal Budget doesn't have many new revelations for South Australia.

01:27While billions of dollars are being spent on the North-South corridor, the Commonwealth's yet to stump up more money

01:33on the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass to divert trucks off busy streets.

01:37We've seen billions of dollars go to Victoria to prop up their rail loop, yet here in South Australia, Tom

01:45Coutts and Tonis and Peter Malinowskis have not been able to kick heads.

01:48Anyone driving along the North-South corridor will know we're getting our fair share.

01:52Anyone who's been following what's going on at Osborne will know we're getting our fair share.

01:57Tom Coutts and Tonis will hand down the state budget in three weeks' time.

02:02for that.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended