QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr CONROY (Shortland—Minister for Pacific Island Affairs and Minister for Defence Industry) (14:01): I thank the member for his question about what is really distressing news for the people and workers at Whyalla. I'll start by a simple, fundamental point: we won't be lectured about support for manufacturers and workers by those over there. We won't be lectured by those over there about support for workers.

Honourable members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will pause. The Manager of Opposition Business?

Mr Tehan: A point of order on relevance. The question said nothing about the opposition— The SPEAKER: Okay, resume your seat. I know, but—order!

Just resume your seat. The minister was responding to a wall of noise that he was receiving from the opposition. I'll ask the minister not to be provoked, but I'll also ask the opposition not to interject.

This is what happens. So, everyone: ask the question, and then we'll hear the answer. The minister will return to the question.

Mr CONROY: I thank you. The Albanese government understands the serious operational challenges faced by administrators who've been working hard to restore operations of the blast furnace at Whyalla steelworks. The administrator, KordaMentha, have announced that efforts to restart the blast furnace over recent months have been unsuccessful.

And that's really awful news for the community and anyone passionate about steelmaking. The truth is that years of failure to invest in the steelworks by the previous owner have resulted in the blast furnace being beyond repair. But those opposite would ask us to ignore the laws of physics and workplace safety.

Let's be very frank about this. I'm going to be very frank with the chamber. The Gupta Group had a responsibility to the workers of Whyalla Steelworks and failed them.

This is entirely Gupta's fault and a lack of maintenance under his ownership. This is the truth. This blast furnace had been neglected for almost a decade.

Anyone who understands steelmaking understands that blast furnaces require regular maintenance, and it's been very clear that, under the Gupta group, this had not occurred. Now, we stepped in with the Malinauskas government to try and save these steelworks. That's why we allocated almost $3 billion to work hard to save the future of steelmaking in South Australia.

Now, the first stage, around restarting the blast furnace, was not successful, because of the years of lack of maintenance. But we still have two bidders interested in continuing steelmaking at the facility, and we're working very hard in conjunction with the South Australian government to secure this future. We will continue to stick up for the workers and the community of Whyalla—rather than those on the opposite side, dancing on the grave of the blast furnace, which is what they're trying to do right now.

We won't be lectured by those who shut down the South Australian car operations, those who shut down two naval shipyards in this country and those who allowed three oil refineries to be shut down. We'll continue to fight for the future of Whyalla. We'll continue to fight for the future of those workers.

We'll continue to fight for the future of steel in this country. We won't be lectured by those who use workers as a hi-vis prop, rather than looking after them. The SPEAKER: Order!

There was far too much noise during that answer. I think everyone can agree with that. I ask all ministers to temper their language, and I ask all members to cease interjecting when people are on their feet.

I don't want to take action today, but, if this continues, there'll be consequences for actions.