House debates Matters of Public Importance

Whyalla Steelworks

Tuesday, 15 September 2026 House of Representatives

Sam Birrell

Sam Birrell Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health

4:04 pm

I think the member for Barker made a really good point: the demand for these products that we're making, that we have been making in Australia, such as structural steel, which is basically a combination of iron ore and the energy that we can produce, is not going to reduce globally. We still need to build things made of steel, and structural steel is still going to have a huge demand around the world. The only difference is that, because of the failed energy policies of the Albanese government, these industries and these processes are going to be moved offshore, like so many things. What are we going to do then? We're going to purchase them back.

The emissions will leave Australia, but they won't leave the globe. The jobs will leave Australia, but they won't leave the globe. And, as the member for Barker quite rightly pointed out, the conditions, the safety and the energy efficiency of the processes of structural steel, to fill the world's demand, will not go away, but it'll be made somewhere with less efficiency, less worker safety and less worker remuneration. That's happening in so many industries across Australia: we're pushing things offshore, because we're not facing the reality of what type of energy mix and grid is required to sustain heavy industry in a country that has a bounty of iron ore, a bounty of high-quality coking coal, a bounty of gas and a bounty of, yes, uranium.

I believe it will not be too long before the Australian Labor Party is going to have to face this folly of being too reliant on intermittently generated power and come to the conclusion, like the rest of the world, that some form of nuclear power is going to be necessary for Australia to continue with the standard of living we have had.

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