It is difficult to imagine the economic and social consequences of the closure of the Port Kembla steelworks, but BlueScope senior executive Noel Cornish hovered around the unthinkable yesterday.
He pulled few punches when giving a blunt assessment of the impacts the unilateral introduction of an emissions trading scheme would have on the Australian steel industry during the Senate inquiry into fuel and energy hearing in Wollongong.
The company has been warning for months that Kevin Rudd's determination to have Australia lead the world with such a scheme would leave trade-exposed industries such as iron and steel out to dry against larger, unrestrained competitors in Brazil, Russia, India and China.
And that was before the global meltdown, which has forced BlueScope to halve its production.
The picture painted by Mr Cornish is chilling for our region. Closure of the steelworks would mean the loss of 4700 jobs at Port Kembla, amongst the 12,000 jobs supported by steel-making activities in the region that would be under threat.
The question now for the Federal Government is whether throwing 12,000 people in the Illawarra onto the unemployment scrap heap is worth the price of what is likely to be only a notional gain for the environment.
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