In today’s Budget and Finance Committee, the Opposition’s questioning revealed GFG Alliance owes a staggering $15 million, if not more, in unpaid bills to SA Water.
This comes on the back of earlier revelations that GFG also owes tens of millions of dollars in royalties, with later admissions suggesting the true figure is closer to a hundred million.
Shockingly, the Under Treasurer Tammie Pribanic, confirmed none of this debt owed to the Government is secured, there is no payment plan in place for the repayment of royalties, and the Government is yet to issue any formal demands for payment.
Ms Pribanic also revealed the Government’s secretive Steel Taskforce does not keep minutes, yet has discussed its “grave concerns" about the future of Whyalla, including holding talks with the Federal Government for several months.
“The shocking revelations in today’s Budget and Finance hearing shows that Peter Malinauskas and his Government will really go to any lengths to cover up the true state of affairs at Whyalla,” Leader of the Opposition, Vincent Tarzia said.
"The secrecy is deeply concerning and is an insult to the hardworking people of Whyalla – they deserve the truth from this Government, but all we’ve seen is gross negligence and poor attempts to cover up their mess.
"It was only through Opposition questioning that the issues at the Whyalla Steelworks were brought into the public domain. How much longer would Peter Malinauskas have kept this under wraps if we hadn’t asked?”
Shadow Minister for Finance and Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, Heidi Girolamo, described it as “galling” that it took Opposition questioning of a public servant to finally get answers to questions that were also raised in Question Time last week.
“The Opposition remains committed to ensuring the Whyalla Steelworks survives both now and into the future and will continue to hold the Government to account on their seismic failures,” Ms Girolamo said.
“It’s clear that despite knowing about this crisis for months, the Government is now using it as a convenient excuse to scrap its flagship election promise to deliver Peter Malinauskas’ Hydrogen vanity project.”
