Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Liberty Bell Bay, located in the north of my home state of Tasmania, is Australia last manganese smelter and, as such, is a vital piece of nationally strategic infrastructure. Earlier this week, my Tasmanian Liberal colleagues and I called on the Albanese Labor government to step up and intervene to save the jobs at risk at the Liberty Bell Bay smelter.

Manganese is essential to steelmaking, lithium-ion batteries and agricultural production. It is a critical input for emissions reduction, renewable energy technologies and advanced manufacturing—industries the Albanese Labor government would have Australians believe they champion. Yet, despite all the rhetoric and policy slogans, such as 'a future made in Australia', the workers and the community at Liberty and across northern Tasmania have been left dangling as collateral damage from the business decisions of Liberty's owner, GFG Alliance. This week, for the second time, the Tasmanian Liberal Senate team wrote to Minister Ayres seeking his direct intervention to save the jobs at Liberty Bell Bay. We are calling for urgent and decisive action on behalf of the workers at the smelter, a significant employer that supports more than 200 workers, their families and the broader region. If Liberty Bell Bay closes, the consequences will be devastating locally: hundreds of jobs will be lost in a region that simply cannot afford it. But the consequences will not stop at the local level. The national implications are just as serious. Australia would become entirely dependent on imported manganese, leaving us more exposed to global supply shocks. Australians already feel the cost of that vulnerability every time they fill up at the petrol browser. If Australia is serious about sovereign capability and supply chain resilience, this is precisely the type of facility that should be protected.

The Albanese Labor government's stated commitment to the renewable energy transition and reducing emissions in industries such as construction will rely heavily on manganese as a critical mineral supporting that transition. Australians are already paying the price for the government's decisions on advanced manufacturing, and that cost is becoming more evident by the day as instability in the Middle East continues. Labor has not been upfront. The economy is weak and fuel supplies are just not guaranteed. Losing the last manganese smelter in the country would take us further down that same path. We must secure the critical assets we still have, before Australia loses yet another element of its advanced manufacturing capability. The Albanese Labor government has already shown that it is willing to intervene when it suits politically. Taxpayers are underwriting a $2.4 billion bailout of the Whyalla Steelworks, also owned by GFG Alliance. The hypocrisy is stark. Indeed, just yesterday the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Senator Tim Ayres, announced a $2 billion bailout of the Boyne aluminium smelter in Queensland, the latest in a long list of support packages for smelters across the country facing financial pressures similar to Liberty Bell Bay. Under the Albanese Labor government, taxpayers have already funded $2 billion for the Boyne aluminium, $1 billion for Tomago Aluminium, $2 billion for Whyalla Steelworks, $600 million for Mount Isa copper and $135 million for Nyrstar. Yet the workers at Liberty Bell Bay have been abandoned by the federal member for Bass, Jess Teesdale, by Minister Ayres and by the entire Albanese Labor government, which appears content to watch these jobs disappear on its watch.

Why are jobs in Tasmania considered expendable while jobs in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia are deemed worth saving? The Labor government must stop treating Tasmania as a second-class state and step up to intervene, help find a buyer and save these jobs, just as it has done for other states. Tasmania deserves the same treatment and the same deal as other communities across the country. It is time for Jess Teesdale and the Albanese Labor government to turn their words into action and step up to save these jobs.