Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

By a small town on a beautiful river lies a cornerstone of Australian manufacturing, Liberty Bell Bay. It's the only manganese smelter in the country, run by a dedicated team in the clean, green state of Tasmania, and yet it is being strung along in the dark. The federal government and Tasmanian state government worked together to cover the workers' wages for three weeks, and I was really glad to see that. But three weeks isn't a promise. Three weeks gives no certainty. And that three weeks runs out this Friday. It may all be okay. A buyer could be announced or further funding procured—who knows? But what I do know, what we all know, is that these workers are being told nothing. They're waiting on a surprise announcement and living on a whisper of hope. Some of them don't even have that. Almost a fifth of the staff have already left. Liberty Bell Bay is being slowly gutted as the cracks deepen and repair becomes harder. If it cracks further and is left to crumble, we won't just lose a business; families will lose their incomes and livelihoods, Tasmania will lose a source of pride in our manufacturing sector and Australia will lose its only remaining manganese smelter, damaging the government's goal of a future made in Australia.

Liberty Bell Bay workers are asking for just 10 more weeks of wage cover to tide them over until a buyer is found. And $8 million is a no-brainer when choosing between losing a key piece of Australian manufacturing and saving it, its workers and the George Town community. The workers just want to go back to work. Let's help them do that next week, the week after that and well into the future. I stand with Liberty Bell Bay.