Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister representing the Minister for Industry and Innovation. Can the minister confirm that the smelters in Tomago, Whyalla, Mount Isa and Tasmania are all either under administration, in crisis talks or seeking government bailouts and that the cost of energy is the reason for this?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Riverina will not be here for the answer if he continues with that.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question, which is about the future of manufacturing in this country—in particular, the future of smelters.

As we've said in this place many times, the sustainability of our domestic minerals and metals processing capability is vital to our national interest, and that's why we're backing jobs, backing manufacturing and backing heavy industry. The member also talked about energy. Obviously, energy is a critical part of the mix, and that's why we're investing record amounts in renewing our energy grid, backing renewable energy—which is the cheapest form of new energy—as well as improving reliability. I stood with the Prime Minister and other ministers when we backed Aussie industry with new investment in energy.

The truth is the coalition had a chance to fix these issues, but they left us with a graveyard of discarded energy policies; by my last count there were 23. We're getting on with fixing the job by taking a considered approach, and Minister Ayres, in the other place, is working very hard at this. We've put aside funding for smelters, we've put aside funding for the green iron fund and we've put aside $2 billion for aluminium, to help with their energy transition. There's more to do, but the truth is we're not going to cop attacks from the other side, who sat on their hands for nine long years and did nothing about it.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Dawson, a point of order?

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance, it was a very tight question. Are the smelters under administration or in crisis talks, and is it because of the energy price?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's not an opportunity to ask the question again. The minister is giving a directly relevant answer to the question about what the government is doing regarding the specific topic that you were asking about. He's being directly relevant and he'll continue.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're working closely with the companies involved as well as their workers and the unions representing them. We're also working closely with the state governments because it's important that we come at a solution together rather than using this as a political football. The truth is we need to solve the energy crisis that we inherited from the other side of government as well as dealing with the long-term issues and the global trade. We're going to get on with the job. We'll back Aussie manufacturing. We're not the side of parliament that cheered when the car industry left; that was under your reign of power. We're going to back manufacturing and Aussie jobs, and we're going to fix the mess that you left us.