QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WONG (South Australia—Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:34): Senator Canavan, I may not have been able to hear the entirety of your question, but I do get the gist of it, and I will seek to respond to it. I think the only part that I properly agree with is that this is a critical national capability, and it is, which is why the government is working with the South Australian government, with the workers, with the unions and with the community to ensure that Whyalla has a future.

I would also say to you that, like the community and the workers at Whyalla, we are angry at the years of underinvestment that have seen Whyalla be run into the ground. The blast furnace that you speak of has been in a perilous state of decay for a very, very long time, and hundreds of engineering and safety failures have been well documented over many years.

Unlike you, we don't think that the coalition and others should be running interference for a British billionaire whose decisions have driven— Opposition senators interjecting— Senator WONG: This is exactly what you are doing. They pretend to be on the side of workers, colleagues, but actually they're running interference for a British billionaire whose entity engaged in underinvestment and poor administration, which has left the blast furnace in a state of decay and, importantly, left workers and the community where they are now.

That is the truth of it. Frankly, it is only because of the efforts of the state and federal Labor governments and the effort of workers at Whyalla that the blast furnace has survived this long. That is the truth.

The PRESIDENT: Senator Canavan, first supplementary?