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The country’s new industry minister has received requests to visit the Port Kembla steelworks, after the Mercury revealed on Thursday all Greg Hunt needed to visit was an invitation.
Illawarra Labor MPs didn’t waste any time getting in touch with Mr Hunt, asking him to head our way and discuss the government’s plans to sustain a viable steel industry.
“I’m not sure if the minister is expecting a gold-embossed invitation but the Illawarra has been begging for the Turnbull government to pay some attention to the steel crisis,” Cunningham MP Sharon Bird said.
“So far, our cries have been ignored.”
Mr Hunt’s predecessor, Christopher Pyne, came under fire late last year after a comment in Parliament suggested he didn’t know where the Port Kembla steelworks was located.
As a result, on December 2, the Mercury featured a front page headline “Where’s Pyney?”.
It was the question on the lips of campaigners, steelworkers, the Illawarra community and even politicians as the fight to save the steel industry continued.
It was a question that went unanswered – Mr Pyne didn’t visit the region once during his 10-month stint covering the industry portfolio.
At the time, Ms Bird and her Labor colleague, then Member for Throsby Stephen Jones, said Mr Pyne needed to “get a map”.
Fast forward almost eight months and the same Labor MPs say they’d be happy to provide Mr Hunt with a map of the region, if needed.
Mr Jones, who is now the Member for Whitlam after an electorate re-name, said Labor was willing to give the government a fresh start.
“Our aim is to work constructively with the new industry ministry on delivering our six-point plan to secure the future of steel,” he said.
“We want to wipe the slate clean and host a range of meetings to tell the Illawarra story and the importance of the Port Kembla steelworks.”
Labor’s six-point plan, announced at BlueScope’s Springhill plant in April, stopped short of setting minimum use targets for government infrastructure projects.
The pre-election proposal instead sought to “maximise Australian steel in Australian projects”.
Also part of Labor’s plan is ensuring steel used in federally-funded projects complies with Australian standards, giving anti-dumping regulators the necessary powers to do their job effectively and creating a National Steel Supplier Advocate.
“The Illawarra needs a strong sustainable future for the Australian steel industry – it is important for the national economy and the local economy,” Ms Bird and Mr Jones said in a joint statement.
“The new industry minister must start being pro-active and put forward a plan to help the steel industry in Australia before it’s too late.”
“The Illawarra Mercury and this region has been calling for some time now for the federal government to ‘provide a better deal for Australian steel’,” the editorial said.
“As yet we’ve heard plenty of talk and not a lot of action.”
The Mercury has contacted Mr Hunt regarding his RSVP.