HE might have grabbed the gold box with open arms and will ensure its contents are tabled in NSW Parliament, but Gareth Ward has his reservations about the aim of the 15,000-signature community petition.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The lack of support from the Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra, and Kiama MP, has caught the ire of steel industry campaigners.
The petition, delivered to NSW Parliament House on Thursday, calls on the government to support the country’s steelmaking by using 100 per cent of our steel in its projects.
One of the men behind the petition, John Doyle, said while he was heartened to see the Illawarra’s five state politicians represented at the hand over, not all of them were on the same page.
“Only four out of those five have given direct support, direct endorsement of that petition,” Mr Doyle told the Mercury in Sydney.
"The Member [Parliamentary Secretary] for the Illawarra does not support the petition in any way, shape or form. His answers to our questions were categorically ‘no’ to every proposition we put to him.
Mr Ward said Mr Doyle’s comments were a fair assessment of his position.
“Whilst I have strong reservations about some of the objectives, I will dutifully table the petition and speak to it when it comes before the house,” he said.
“I take the view that I need to be honest with people.”
Mr Ward stressed the previous Labor government had the same procurement policy as the Liberal Party.
“I ask people to look at our actions and that's in Berry, 54 per cent of the [bypass] project was Australian steel, at Gerringong [the Princes Highway upgrade] it was 62 per cent - that exceeds the union movement's 50 per cent [mandate push],” he said.
“Not every product that's required by government is made by BlueScope.”
Mr Ward said he was committed to supporting the region’s jobs by buying locally, but only where it was “relatively and comparatively efficient to do so”.
“That might not be the case in every circumstance,” he said. Ian Waters, another organiser, said the 100 per cent target wasn’t ambitious.
“This request here is not outlandish [or a] strange request of this government, this is something that's already happening in Australia and that’s why we’re pretty strong to ask them to go ahead with it,” Mr Waters said.
