Ley to speak to businesses after Rio Tinto threatens closure of Tomago aluminium smelter

Sussan Ley will speak to local businesses and manufacturing companies who would be hard hit by the threatened closure of the Tomago aluminium smelter.

Ms Ley will head to Tomago to speak to businesses who depend on the aluminium smelter, following threats it could be shuttered. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Opposition leader Sussan Ley will meet with local businesses near the Tomago smelter following news Rio Tinto could close Australia’s largest aluminium smelter over unsustainable energy costs.

Ms Ley will travel to the Hunter on Friday morning where she’s set to convene a small business roundtable and visit a manufacturing company in the area.

With Anthony Albanese currently in South Korea for the APEC Summit, Ms Ley said workers and local businesses deserved “certainty, not another desperate Labor bailout”.

Amid internal debates over the Coalition’s energy strategy and position on net zero targets, she said she wanted to “hear directly from the people who are living this reality every day,” and that they “deserve a government that delivers affordable energy and certainty for the future”.

“Australia’s largest aluminium smelter should be powering jobs and growth, but instead it is fighting for survival because energy costs under Labor have become unworkable,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

“The cost of energy under Labor is sending industry to the wall, but it is not just about the smelter jobs.

“It is about the apprentices, the suppliers, the small businesses, and the local communities who rely on these industries to keep towns strong.”

The state and federal government are negotiating to keep the facility open. Picture: Simon Bullard

Both federal and state Labor government have promised to “leave no stone unturned” as it negotiates to keep the facility in operation, with smelter boss Jerome Dozol warning the site will not be commercially viable once its power contract with AGL expires in December 2028.

He said there was also “significant uncertainty” that renewable projects would be “available at the scale we need”.

NSW Premier Chris Minns also called on Rio Tinto to make a decision on the future of its Tomago aluminium smelter after they rejected offers from both the state and federal government.

“We can’t be in a position where the government is more committed to the survival of Tomago than the owners, so they’re going to have to make a decision but ultimately, we don’t want to wait,” he said on Thursday.

Industry Minister Tim Ayres has remained committed that “no option is off the table” including the Commonwealth either taking a public stake in the smelter, or subsidising the smelter’s electricity bills.

Do you have a story for The Daily Telegraph? Message 0481 056 618 or email [e-mail]

Originally published as Ley to speak to businesses after Rio Tinto threatens closure of Tomago aluminium smelter