Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

Member for Grey, I was incredibly respectful while you were speaking and I would appreciate it if you would do the same for me. But this is one infrastructure project within the $190 billion of government infrastructure spending. The member for Grey said on ABC Adelaide: 'That can't happen. We can't let that happen.' And yet, despite the fact that we make excellent quality steel right here in Australia, the Liberal and National parties will not commit to using Australian steel on the Inland Rail project.

Procurement rules have changed, so that we hopefully have more of a level playing field for our Australian companies who are missing out because they are not producing goods at a cheap rate overseas. Arrium and the steelworkers of Whyalla in the member for Grey's electorate are crying out to keep their jobs and the Australian engineering expertise here in Australia, but the federal government refuses to commit to Australian steel—not for the Inland Rail project nor for any other major infrastructure projects that would use Arrium steel. That is not what the taxpayers want. If the Liberal and National parties are serious about a commitment to Australian steel and Australian jobs, they would have supported the Australian car industry; they would have supported the Automotive Transformation Scheme. They did not. It was underspent and the money would not be transferred elsewhere to support manufacturing.

The federal government's response has been to do nothing while that money remains unspent, while South Australia has the highest rate of unemployment of all the mainland states and while we continue to be concerned about a tsunami of job losses with the closure of Holden, and we have the member for Grey talking about $74 million to be spent by Adani when what we are missing out on is the opportunity for the Australia government to invest in Australian steel and Australian manufacturing. The best quality steel in the world—we make it. We make strong, quality steel, not rubbish. And this should be on our national infrastructure projects.

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