AAP is reporting Australia will lose thousands of jobs if the federal government fails to kickstart the nascent green iron industry, experts warn. What’s the scam?
The scam is that the Government is ignoring the plight of one of our largest steel mills – Whyalla – who, despite ‘green’ promises, has done little to fulfil them. And the government, at least the last one, has been scammed itself.
The Whyalla steelworks are 60 years old and have been on a rocky road for well over a decade.
In 2016 when the previous owner, Arrium, went into administration with $4B in debts. British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance bought the steelworks making lots of promises for a bright future, but it was not to be. At the turn of the decade, Greensill Capital, GFG’s financier, started to collapse, and local contractors weren’t getting paid.
In March this year, a two-day scheduled stoppage saw the Whyalla plant’s blast furnace cool down much more than anticipated, which has left it offline ever since.
Seven years ago, when Sanjeev Gupta took over Arrium’s iron ore mines, steelworks, and associated steel manufacturing, recycling and distribution businesses, there were celebrations all around.
Gupta’s plans included new investment in renewable energy projects, a 280-megawatt solar farm project and the world’s largest lithium-ion battery. Gupta told Australians that Whyalla would produce green steel, with a long-term goal for a ‘Mega Plant’ able to produce 10 million tonnes.
But none of this has happened.
The Federal and State governments are prepared to assist financially but, rightly, don’t want to hand over any money in advance in case it goes ‘missing’ elsewhere in Gupta’s troubled empire. It’s a stalemate that timid political leaders are not equipped to handle.
And so what’s happening? What’s the PM doing to turn the problems in Whyalla into the opportunity identified in the Mandala Partners report?
The PM is doing nothing. How do we know this? I recently did an FOI into the briefings the PM has received on Whyalla, and yesterday, the request came up with nothing.
It seems our Prime Minister is leaving that future solely in the hands of a court-entangled foreign billionaire with a gaping chasm between his promises and delivery. That’s not good enough.
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Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and earlier a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader, Rex is running for the Senate on the Lambie Network ticket next year - www.transparencywarrior.com.au.