My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. Yesterday, Whyalla closed their blast furnace—yet another example of the deindustrialisation campaign that your government is overseeing—thanks to skyrocketing energy costs and your safeguards tax.

You guys are so dishonest!

Order! Senator Ayres.

Could we start that again.

Order! I'm waiting for silence. Senator McDonald, if you wouldn't mind, please start again and we'll restart the clock.

Thank you. My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. Yesterday, Whyalla closed their blast furnace—yet another example of the deindustrialisation campaign that your government is overseeing—thanks to skyrocketing energy costs and your safeguards tax. Your government had allocated $2.4 billion to a taxpayer funded bailout of the facility, which is cold comfort to the workers who have now lost their jobs. Only the Albanese Labor government could justify taxing a business to death with the safeguards tax, then using taxpayer funding to attempt to bail it out only to then watch it fail. When will you axe the safeguards tax and remove the shackles from our industrial sector?

When will you start with an honest approach?

Order, Senator Ayres!

First I'd say, Senator—and I understand that there's a desire to play a bit of politics and a bit of ideology in this—what we are very clear about is that securing Whyalla is essential. It is essential because we do want to continue to see domestic structural and long-steel capability. We are prepared to work with the South Australian government, the workers, their union and the community to ensure a future for Whyalla. Yes, we are prepared to invest taxpayer funds because we believe industrial capability matters to our country. Senator, I would make the point that a number on your side—and I can't recall if you were one of them—were highly critical of the government stepping in to secure the future of Tomago, but we did that. We did that because it is critical not only to have that capability but also to the regional economy and—

Minister Wong, please resume your seat. Senator McDonald.

I specifically asked about the safeguards tax. Could you please redirect the minister.

Thank you, Senator McDonald. There was also the preamble. I believe the minister's being relevant to your question, and I'll continue to listen carefully.

Senator, if you look at the challenges of Whyalla, the challenges of that particular facility and the underinvestment by the previous owner, I think you will see the reasons why the blast furnace is in the state that it is.

But the point I'm making is an important point, because there is a difference between your side of politics and ours. We believe that a future made in Australia matters. We believe that jobs in these heavy industries matter, and we believe that it is important for governments to ensure that those industries can make the transition and be a long-term, sustainable part of the Australian economy, and it is your side of politics who have complained long and hard about government stepping up, stepping in and investing in these sectors.

Senator Macdonald, first supplementary?

Minister, last night, on 7.30, Minister Bowen said that he 'never quite bought all the hype on green hydrogen', despite giving promises to the workers of Whyalla that they had a future in green steel. Will you now apologise to the workers in Whyalla who have lost their jobs in your home state?

I'm not sure that the quote is fully accurate and I have even less confidence that the assertion as a consequence of the quote is accurate. I will again go back to the primary proposition: we support a future for Whyalla. We are working with the workers, their unions and the communities and with the Malinauskas government to secure a future for Whyalla.

Senator Macdonald, second supplementary?

Minister, your energy policies have failed, your industry policies have failed, your migration policies have failed, and your emissions policies have failed. Will you axe net zero and the safeguards tax and stop the deindustrialisation of Australia?

Senator, I would say a few things to that. The first thing I would say is that we are focused on helping the workers in Whyalla, not playing politics with their future. That's the first point. The second point I would make is that generations of Liberal politicians on that side of the chamber and National politicians have complained about Labor's investment in the industrial sector, and you continue to do that. As I said, we all remember Joe Hockey in the other place goading the last of the car industry to leave Australia, and we know what that meant in my home town of Adelaide. We all remember that. We all remember that, and you haven't changed, because we saw the same thing when we brought forward the Tomago package. You complained.