QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator McDONALD (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (14:11): My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. Yesterday, Whyalla closed their blast furnace—yet another example of the deindustrialisation campaign that your government is overseeing—thanks to skyrocketing energy costs and your safeguards tax. Senator Ayres: You guys are so dishonest!

The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Ayres. Honourable senators interjecting— Senator Wong: Could we start that again.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I'm waiting for silence. Senator McDonald, if you wouldn't mind, please start again and we'll restart the clock.

Senator McDONALD: Thank you. My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. Yesterday, Whyalla closed their blast furnace—yet another example of the deindustrialisation campaign that your government is overseeing—thanks to skyrocketing energy costs and your safeguards tax.

Your government had allocated $2.4 billion to a taxpayer funded bailout of the facility, which is cold comfort to the workers who have now lost their jobs. Only the Albanese Labor government could justify taxing a business to death with the safeguards tax, then using taxpayer funding to attempt to bail it out only to then watch it fail. When will you axe the safeguards tax and remove the shackles from our industrial sector?

Senator Ayres: When will you start with an honest approach? The PRESIDENT: Order, Senator Ayres!