In the wake of the steel crisis, which began last year, various government ministers and MPs have made claims about how much steel used government projects is procured in Australia.

In parliament last week Roads Minister Duncan Gay called the government “the single largest procurer of steel in Australia” and said “we use majority sourced Australian steel for many of our projects”.

The issue for campaigner Ian Waters is that sourcing steel from Australia doesn't mean it’s made or processed here.

“All that means is the government raised a purchase order on some NSW or Australian company,” Mr Waters said.

“It doesn’t say anything about where that company might have sourced their product from.”

Mr Waters cited the reinforcing bar in the Princes Highway upgrades that, while sold in Australia, is made in Singapore.

He suggested purchasing this from an Australian supplier could possibly be counted a product sourced from Australia.

Mr Waters said steel went through a number of processing steps before the finished product was sold and suggested, if any one of those happened in Australia the government could call it “Australian steel”.

Similarly, he said there was steel products being made wholly overseas but sold in Australia that could be classed as “procured in NSW”.

Mr Gay and Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet were contacted for comment but only the latter responded by deadline.

“Information about the steel used in NSW Government infrastructure projects is provided by the relevant agencies (including Roads and Maritime Services, Sydney Motorway Corporation and Transport for NSW),” said a spokesman for Mr Perrottet.