CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr VENNING (Grey) (10:25): I want to take the time to acknowledge the community of Whyalla and their perspectives. Yesterday, I sought leave from this place to go and meet with the community, the administrators, the council, the taskforce, the transition taskforce and, of course, the steelworkers. Whyalla is not in a happy place right now.

They're tired and they feel abandoned. Some told me they feel like they've been treated like mushrooms—kept in the dark and fed the proverbial. These are working men and women, something that is unfamiliar to this place here in Canberra.

These are people who have turned up day after day and worked incredibly hard to keep making iron and steel. They have worked through the uncertainty. They have worked through the breakdowns.

They have worked through months and months of not knowing what their future would hold. They are constantly told they are a resilient community, a resilient workforce. They are also sick and tired of being told how resilient they are.

Today, they feel let down. They were sold the green hydrogen dream. They were sold it from Gupta, Treasurer Koutsantonis, Premier Malinauskas, Minister Chris Bowen and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Now Minister Chris Bowen's green dream has become the Whyalla nightmare. But today I stand with the workers facing redundancies. We cannot turn back the clock.

We are where we are. The community now needs certainty, certainty and more certainty. It has been 19 months.

We have spent over $1 billion, and we've now lost 850 jobs and counting. The Prime Minister, Minister Ayres and the state ministers need to travel to Whyalla, prioritise this community and get a deal signed and then commit to timelines for when we will be pouring iron again. I stand with the families.

I stand with the businesses facing uncertainty, and I stand with the entire Whyalla community because this is not just about the steelworks; it is about the people, the families, the livelihoods and the future of an entire community. For every one manufacturing job in this country, there's somewhere between three to seven other jobs impacted. It's called the force multiplier.

So, yes, there were 850 jobs announced yesterday, but this is going to have ramifications for small business and for people's partners. It is a really devastating time for that community. Working Holiday Maker backpackers are so important to regional South Australia.

Labor cannot continue to make decisions in Canberra without understanding the impact they have on the actual people that produce our food, run our businesses and keep South Australia thriving. Working Holiday Makers drive our chaser bins and help our harvests.