NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian has used NSW Parliament to commend the “very brave decision” made by Port Kembla steelworkers, but was non-committal about when government help would be forthcoming.
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Just days after workers voted to sacrifice jobs and conditions to help keep the steelworks open, the Baird government was quizzed about the region’s steel crisis during Question Time on Tuesday.
“Given the men and women employed at [the] BlueScope steelworks have made enormous sacrifices to try and ensure the plant continues to operate, when will the NSW government deliver payroll tax relief to ensure job losses in the Illawarra don’t go into the thousands?,” Opposition spokesman for the Illawarra, and Member for Keira, Ryan Park asked.
In response, Ms Berejiklian stressed the government was “continuing to monitor the issue very carefully”. “Credit where credit’s due, the decision the unions took was a tough decision, but they worked with management to take on that decision,” she told Parliament.
The Treasurer reiterated Industry Minister Anthony Roberts was briefed by steel industry stakeholders at a meeting in Wollongong on September 7. “We need to make sure we support industries into the future and that’s why we’ll continue to talk to all of our stakeholders,” she said. Ms Berejiklian later stressed the “hypocrisy of the Labor Party”, given BlueScope “suffered similar challenges” when they were in government in 2010.
She then mentioned a Mercury story.
“The Labor Party was actually asked to use steel from BlueScope to upgrade WIN Stadium and ... they chose not to do that,” she said, holding an A4 copy of the article. As she wrapped up her response, the words “you didn’t answer the question” were heard from the Opposition benches.
In a statement issued a short time later, Mr Park labelled Ms Berejiklian’s answers “appalling”.
“There are thousands of jobs on the line and the government doesn’t seem to care,” Mr Park said.
Prior to Question Time, Shellharbour MP Anna Watson slammed the government’s lack of response via a media release. “The Premier needs to get off the Twitter and Facebook accounts talking about popular culture and start telling the Illawarra what his government is doing to play its part in saving the steel industry,” she said.