STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms TEESDALE (Bass) (13:50): For 18 months, 550 workers at Bell Bay Aluminium lived with uncertainty about their futures. There were 18 months of wondering whether they could buy a home, start a family or even plan a holiday. But, with our recent announcement, Northern Tasmania can look forward with renewed confidence.

A $200 million joint government support package, alongside a five-year power price agreement, provides greater security for 550 workers and also supports more than a thousand jobs right across the supply chain, which will have a huge impact in Northern Tasmania. Throughout these difficult months, I've worked closely with ministers and with the industry to ensure that our workers and our businesses were heard, and Bell Bay's importance to Tasmania and Australia was never underestimated.

Thank you so much for the advocacy and the support to workers from organisations such as BBAMZ, our local councils and businesses throughout the supply chain. I'm enormously grateful to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister Tim Ayres in particular for their persistence and their commitment to securing this often hard to see outcome, but we got there and we are so pleased.

Above all, I am delighted for my community, for workers who can plan their futures, for businesses that can invest with confidence and for young people that can build their lives in the greatest part of Australia, right in Bass. After so much uncertainty, Northern Tasmania can look forward to the future with hope.