Well that can be arranged.

Dear Minister Hunt, the Illawarra Mercury is writing today to officially invite you to our region.

Congratulations on your appointment as the new Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science on July 19.

As you will come to learn, those are three areas the Illawarra excels in and in many cases leads the nation.

In particular, the steelworks at Port Kembla remains a vital – albeit challenged – part of the nation’s remaining manufacturing industry.

The Illawarra Mercury and this region has been calling for some time now for the Federal Government to “provide a better deal for Australian steel”.

As yet we’ve heard plenty of talk and not a lot of action.

In fact we were actually wondering whether your predecessor Christopher Pyne knew where Wollongong was or that the Port Kembla steelworks existed.

Therefore, we welcome your appointment.

It is also great to learn you are “familiar and engaged” with BlueScope’s Western Port facility in your own electorate of Flinders in Victoria.

Wonderful news.

Minister, please RSVP soon as the Illawarra would love the chance to give the Federal Government a clear understanding of what the steelworks contributes and means to our region.

Under the almost cover of darkness on Wednesday afternoon the NSW Government quietly announced Bulli Pass will be shut down in both directions for two months after the October long weekend.

The 24-hour, seven-day-a-week closure will allow for safety upgrades.

Illawarra readers reacted venomously with our Facebook post reaching over 50,000 people in an hours, being shared over 300 times and receiving 400 mostly angry comments.

“That’s outrageous .… how do we drive south to Gong...??? the traffic is bad enough in the area....bad bad bad,’’ was a comment which summed up the tone. 

Among the angry comments though was the odd one that maybe if it helps save a life it’s worth it? Interesting perspective.