It might have been the first day of April but steel campaigners at a community rally on Friday say they won’t be fooled as the fight to save the industry continues.
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With a federal election looming, Illawarra’s steel industry fighters were joined by a handful of Australian senators for the public display of action outside BlueScope Steel’s Port Kembla plant.
Independent senators Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania) and Nick Xenophon (South Australia), both well known for their outspoken nature, were among those who addressed the crowd of about 100 people.
“If it’s not our shipping jobs going, it’s manufacturing jobs going and now the steelworks is going – this free market is absolute bulls--t, there’s no other way to put it,” Senator Lambie told the gathering.
“I tell you now, my kids want grease and calluses on their hands, they don’t want to be IT experts. I want jobs for my grandchildren and I want them to have options.”
Speaking to the Mercury after her address, Senator Lambie said she feared for the future.
“[If] you lose jobs then they [people] end up on the dole queue and that’s not good for society,” she said. “Those people lose their self-esteem, … they give up and then they turn to drugs and alcohol and that costs society a lot more.”
The protection of jobs provided an extra dimension to the rally’s steel industry focus.
“This is not just about a battle for the Australian steel industry and what is happening in Port Kembla and in Whyalla, this is actually a battle for the future of Australian manufacturing,” Senator Xenophon said.
“Because a country that doesn’t make its own steel will end up losing its manufacturing base.”
Senator Xenophon echoed campaigners calls for stronger anti-dumping laws, saying they needed to “have real teeth”, and a procurement policy for steel used in government infrastructure projects.
Staunch steel advocate and South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris said successive Australian governments had promised for decades to defend our industry and protect jobs.
“To be quite blunt, we have been dudded,” Mr Rorris said
”This [rally] may be held on April 1 but our message is this; we won’t get fooled again. “With elections coming on, now is the time we can leverage pressure on every politician.”
