Press Conference: Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan & Kim Carr on BlueScope Steel
Thank you. I’m joined today by the Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, Wayne Swan and by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Minister Carr. As a Government we have been explaining to the Australian people for some time now that the fundamentals of the Australian economy are strong. We have low unemployment, we have strong public finances, we have a huge pipeline of investment coming on stream and we have strong banks. We’ve also been explaining to the Australian people that our economy does have patchwork pressures. Though the economic fundamentals are strong, there are pressures on some industries and some regions. Those pressures arise in part from our very strong Australian dollar. It’s a benefit for some but for some industries including manufacturing, that does put pressure on. And there are other competitive pressures and changes in the global economy that have impacts for some industries, regions and firms.
It’s against that backdrop that today we have seen BlueScope announce that it will reduce jobs by 1000; 800 of those in the Illawarra and 200 in Hastings. Now this is an issue that affects us nationally, it affects those two regions and of course it affects the individual workers who are now understandably very worried about what their future will hold.
Nationally it affects us because we want to be a nation that produces steel, we want to be a nation that has a strong manufacturing sector and that offers the opportunity of high wage, high value adding manufacturing jobs.
For the regions involved, it is obviously a big blow to their local economies. For example, if we look at the Illawarra, more than 600 local firms contract with BlueScope, the firm BlueScope purchases more than $1.2 billion per annum in goods from the local economy and BlueScope provides goods worth more than $600 million per annum to the local economy.
So understanding this, the Government has made a set of decisions that we’ll announce with my colleagues today and explain. We’ve decided to make this announcement because there’s no higher priority for us as a Labor Government than supporting jobs. We’ve got a proud track record of supporting jobs, of managing the economy so that we create jobs and we intend to keep supporting jobs.
We also intend to keep managing the economy in the right way as we face these patchwork pressures, so that we spread opportunity for all and so that we do not see regions or individuals left behind. So the Government has determined to make available out of the Steel Transformation Plan money, a facility of $100 million. The Government has also determined to make available a package that totals $30 million as an investment and innovation fund. The $30 million is composed of $20 million flowing from the Federal Government, $5 million flowing from the New South Wales Government and $5 million flowing from BlueScope itself.
We’ve also determined to make available $10 million worth of services and support to the individual workers involved. We want to make sure that people do get the services and support they need to help them get the next opportunity, the next job, the next change in their life. This is a difficult day for many working people and their families, we understand that. We’ll always be determined to support Australians and their jobs and consequently we are making these announcements today.
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