ADJOURNMENT
Mr VENNING (Grey) (16:51): Today in question time I asked the Prime Minister: instead of jetting off to New York, why not come to Whyalla and look the steelworkers in the eye like he did in February and then again in March and say, 'I've got your back. Here is certainty for jobs'? Again, he's lost their trust.
He's done a backflip, and currently 800-plus jobs have been lost. It's going to be over a thousand at the end of the day. This is the reality on the ground in Whyalla.
This is when reality catches up with ideology. They have been sold so many promises over the last 10 years by both state and federal Labor governments. They've been in administration for 19 months, and all that's been delivered is nearly a thousand job losses.
What they need now is certainty. I'm calling on the Prime Minister, Minister Ayres and the state representatives to go to Whyalla, sit down with the buyers and get the deal signed now because without that certainty we're going through this valley of death right now when it comes to the workforce. In the future, when I hope we'll have a new a new blast furnace, a DRI and EAF—those workers will not be there in four years time.
The community needs certainty right now, and that certainty can be given through getting a deal signed. I recently visited the APY Lands with shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Julian Leeser. Many essential services remain fragile, understaffed or unavailable altogether.
There is not even any APY-wide health data. No-one in this place can tell you the true picture of the lands, because no-one is measuring it. Across the lands, respected elders are ageing or have passed while too few emerging figures command the same standing in their place.
The children we met were bright and curious, but retention is a real concern. At Pukatja, there have been 10 principals in 2025 alone. While 160 children are enrolled in the school, daily attendance has varied drastically.
Some days it's 10; some days it's 80. When we were there, it was between 10 and 20. In many of the schools we attended, they might have 50 kids on the electoral roll that they have not seen in years, and they don't want to take them off that roll because hopefully one day they'll show up.
That is the reality of life in these remote Indigenous communities. We also met Trish. Trish was the only staff member with longstanding continuity in the lands.
Trish has been a teacher on and off since the 1970s. Trish is worth her weight in gold. Every other teacher is fresh out of university.
You cannot nurse on the lands without three years experience, yet we're asking graduates to teach in their first year out. And we wonder why they leave—some after two years, some after two months, some even after two minutes. In the APY Lands, water and power cannot be taken for granted.
Feral camels, horses and donkeys are wrecking the soaks and waterholes, damaging the very water these communities drink. There is a real issue with invasive species up there, and no-one is doing anything about it. Buffel grass, one invasive species, is choking the country and increasing the fire risk.
At this rate, it is one bad fire season away from catastrophe. Power supplies go off and on amid temperatures above 40 degrees. In 40-degree heat, sometimes 45 up there, a power failure is not an inconvenience; it is a danger.
The supply chain is slow, deliveries stop and basic household goods sometimes do not arrive. There is also no public transport across the lands. The Bush Bee service stopped when the man running it retired, and nothing replaced it.
And we ask why children aren't at school. There are people getting it right. Aileen Shannon and Tony Rodgers from Wiltja Constructions took two apprentices, from Coober Pedy and Quorn, and both have stayed on in the region.
Bryce Ingham at Fregon runs practical, show-and-do training at the TAFE. It reaches people the classroom has failed and helps them into work. These are not programs designed in Canberra.
These are people on the ground, and some are getting results.