Christopher Pyne calls on states to help Arrium as it goes into voluntary administration

CHRISTOPHER Pyne has called on state governments to help embattled Australian steel company Arrium — as around 7000 jobs are at risk.

Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Christopher Pyne and Assistant Minister for Science, Karen Andrews MP hold a press conference regarding the latest anti-dumping decision on imported steel, at Parliament House in Canberra.

INDUSTRY Minister Christopher Pyne has called on state governments to step up to the plate and assist embattled steel company Arrium — claiming the Federal Government was already doing what it could.

Responding to news today the company, which he said employs close to 7000 Australians, had voluntarily appointed administrators to help it trade out of $2.8 billion in debt, Mr Pyne said the Federal Government hadn’t been asked to formally bail the company out.

“Of course we will listen to any suggestion made to us by the administrators of Arrium or the banks that are involved in Arrium, the governments that are involved, but the use of taxpayers funds in a bailout is a very blunt instrument when there are other levers that the Government can and has been pulling and could potentially pull in the future to support a business like this,” he said.

“I understand the South Australian Government, Tom Koutsantonis the Treasurer there, has said the South Australian Government will put money on the table but they just need to know how best to do that, so there are support offers being made.”

Arrium employs 2800 people in NSW, 1600 in South Australia, 930 in Victoria, 900 in Queensland, 350 in WA, 60 in Tasmania, 40 in the NT and 30 in the ACT.

Mr Pyne described the company’s potential collapse as an “Australia-wide issue”.

MORE: How Whyalla steelmaker Arrium went into voluntary administration

“We’ll continue to work with the State Government in SA and Tom Koutsantonis in particular, who has been working well with the Federal Government to try and help this company to stay afloat and keep the jobs in place,” he said.

“But I’d also be calling on the Government in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and WA to take a proactive interest in the outcome at Arrium because obviously their own citizens are also affected by what happens in the future.”

Mr Pyne said the importance of Arrium as Australia’s only industrial steel producer was being considered.

The Arrium plant in Whyalla. Picture: Campbell Brodie.

He said although the steel making sector was currently “very difficult” because of the glut of Chinese steel in the international market, he blamed the company’s management for its woes.

“Now BlueScope Steel at Port Kembla, facing the same international pressures, has managed to restructure their workforce, business, their model, they have got payroll tax support from the NSW Government, they didn’t get a Government bailout from the Federal taxpayer, and they are trading profitably,” Mr Pyne said.

“The massive difference is this $2.8 billion burden on Arrium and entering into that debt was a decision of the Arrium management, it wasn’t a decision of the Federal Government, any state government or the workers at any of the Arrium plants around Australia.

“If anybody bears responsibility for that debt, it was the decision of the management at Arrium.”

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said it was clear the relationship between the company’s management and its banks was “dysfunctional”.

He said the Federal Government could do more.

“A Labor Government I lead would make sure we had genuine local procurement,” he said.

“Governments at all levels, council, state spend a lot on infrastructure. What is wrong with requiring Australian content in the steel?

“Only recently the Government seems to have discovered the problem which steel industry, the unions and plenty in business have been complaining about that Australia’s anti-dumping laws are being abused.”

Mr Shorten called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to, “improve the standards by which we assess the grades of steel used in our construction.”

“I, for one, haven’t swallowed a right-wing economic textbook and simply pretended there is no role for Government to help with co-operative investment,” he said.

“I believe there are solutions available to keep the whole business going.

“I counsel the industry and administrator, do not conduct a fire sale, sell off the only part of the business which might be immediately profitable and run away from the business all together. We need a steel industry in Australia.”