The revelation comes after a galvanised steel pole, marked as being manufactured in Vietnam, was spotted in a Warrawong laneway. 

Wollongong MP Paul Scully has used the discovery to question the council’s support of Australian-made steel, following a lengthy, community-led fight to save the Port Kembla steelworks.

Read more: NSW Government forum to discuss steel procurement

In a letter to the council’s general manager, David Farmer, Mr Scully said he was “perplexed” steel manufactured overseas was being used “in a suburb within view of the BlueScope Steel plant at Port Kembla”.

In response, Wollongong lord mayor Gordon Bradbery said the galvanised steel pipe required for the sign was “not among the products produced by BlueScope Steel”.

In a separate letter, Cr Bradbery said the pole was sourced from De Neefe, one of Australia’s largest manufacturers of traffic signage, which provides similar poles to “almost all Sydney and southern NSW councils”.

“The pole you identified … is peculiar in that the supplier has advised that there is usually no marking or similar on the product to indicate origin of manufacture,” he said.

“An inspection of all De Neefe poles currently held at council’s three depots could not identify any further poles with similar markings. The pole you have identified will be replaced with a pole not bearing any markings.”

Mr Scully said the pole’s origin and council’s plan to replace it with a nondescript version “makes a mockery of it supporting local steel jobs”.

“Wollongong council has some serious questions to answer on why it has failed to support the steel industry in its own backyard and why after being caught out, how it can justify trying to cover it up,” he said.

Mr Scully said Orrcon Steel, a BlueScope-owned Australian company, could have made the steel post. 

However, Cr Bradbery said that wasn’t the case. “It’s a special type of tubing and it’s not manufactured here,” the lord mayor told the Mercury.

“It’s got specifications [so] that it collapses when hit, it’s got special safety requirements, so it’s not just about a bit of tube holding a sign.”

As for the claim of a cover-up, Cr Bradbery said Mr Scully was “making a lot of noise out of nothing”. 

“It [the required steel tubing] hasn’t been produced at Port Kembla, it was produced by Arrium and it came from Whyalla, and … they haven’t produced it here for the past five years,” he said.

In a Warrawong laneway, just a stone’s throw from BlueScope’s Port Kembla steelworks, stands a galvanised steel pole.

While it might look like just an ordinary street sign, a closer inspection reveals there’s more to this particular sign than meets the eye.

Printed down the side of the pole are measurements and the word “Vietnam”.

The sign, erected by Wollongong City Council during recent upgrades to the laneway behind Warrawong’s Open Hearth Hotel, was not manufactured in Australia – it’s travelled more than 7000km to get here.  The closest entry to the Port Kembla steelworks, off Five Islands Road, is about 1.5km away.

Wollongong MP Paul Scully has raised concerns over the use of imported steel.

Mr Scully said Orrcon Steel, a BlueScope-owned company, could give a quote on “galvanised steel street posts” and its website advertised “sign posts”.

Wollongong lord mayor Gordon Bradbery said the required tubing, which must meet Roads and Maritime Services safety standards, was not made in Australia.

EDITORIAL

Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery reckons Labor MP Paul Scully is worrying about nothing by raising the alarm over a single street pole in a small laneway off Warrawong’s main road.

Mostly unremarkable, the No Stopping sign (deep in Labor territory) has drawn attention for its unusual marking which shows it was made in Vietnam.

Mr Scully has called out the council, saying the sign’s installation “makes a mockery of it supporting local steel jobs”.

Commendably, Wollongong council voted in 2015 that all structural steel and reinforcement used in council projects be Australian made, unless appropriate products are not available or a sound economic argument can be made otherwise.

Mr Scully says, then, that this street signs could and should be supplied by BlueScope-owned company Orrcon Steel, and believes ratepayers will be “stunned” by the council’s plan to “cover-up” its use of overseas steel by replacing the sign pole with an unmarked rod.

But Cr Bradbery says the street pole steel must be made to exacting safety standards, so it collapses when hit by a car, and Mr Scully is incorrect in his belief that the product is available in Australia.

Now, if it wasn’t for the startling proximity to Port Kembla steelworks, and the unusual marking that shows the steel was made in Vietnam (which the council says is an anomaly), no one would be any wiser about this little pole. 

And if the council and Cr Bradbery are right, they haven’t contravened the steel procurement policy they put in place to boost local jobs.

So, now that the sign is there it seems a bit pointless for the council to replace it and try to hide its origins.

We know, just because we have a steelworks here, it doesn’t mean Wollongong – or Australia – can make every single product any more.

If this steel isn’t available here, then the council isn’t at fault for using Vietnamese steel.

So why don’t we just leave the pole there – loud and proud of where it came from.

In fact, maybe, as we work towards using more Australian materials in government and private projects, we should be demanding that more steel products come with a place of origin marking.

Then we’d really know who was committed to using local steel.