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Speaker 1: The Energy Minister, Tom kots and Toni's part of, of course,

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Speaker 1: the cabinet meeting being held in Wyala. He joins me. Now, Minister,

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Speaker 1: good morning, morning match. What do you hope today achieves ultimately,

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Speaker 1: apart from peace of mind for people involved in the

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Speaker 1: whole town because obviously it flows through to the local economy,

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Speaker 1: keeping the steel works going, which is fundamental.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's a couple of things. The entire cabinet's up

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Speaker 2: here today, so it's a whole series of meetings going

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Speaker 2: on across Wyala. We just want to reassure people that

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Speaker 2: we've got Wyala's back. You know, we know how strategically

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Speaker 2: important this city is for the country, not just for

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Speaker 2: the state. We're having a cabinet meeting. We're meeting with creditors,

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Speaker 2: We're meeting with people who owed money by GfG. We're

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Speaker 2: meeting with contractors. We're meeting with the union who represent

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Speaker 2: the workers who work at the steel works, and a

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Speaker 2: lot of the unions who represent the contractors who work

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Speaker 2: at the steel works. And we're going through with the

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Speaker 2: management of the steel works. They're back in black plan

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Speaker 2: to make sure that if there's something we can do

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Speaker 2: to assist and of course I want some first hand

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Speaker 2: updates what's going on with the blasts.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, which is still out as I understand, it's getting better.

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Speaker 2: Obviously it's not pouring liquid still yet, but it's on

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Speaker 2: the path of recovery.

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Speaker 1: And workers are turning up. I hear this from the

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Speaker 1: cold face or the still works. Workers are turning up

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Speaker 1: nothing to do. They can't do maintenance because there's no

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Speaker 1: money for it. There's no job to do. They're getting

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Speaker 1: paid by a company that we read about is restructuring finance.

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Speaker 1: And while they're getting paid, contractors are still owned millions

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Speaker 1: of dollars.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I have heard some of those contractors have had

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Speaker 2: a lot of payments made in recent times, so that's

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Speaker 2: a good sign. But we'll see how far that's gone. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I'm concerned about it as all. Mate. That's while we're

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Speaker 2: up here. We want to make sure that the student's

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Speaker 2: got a long and prosperous future because it is so

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Speaker 2: critically important in the state's future.

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Speaker 1: Even if they restructure and get back on their feet

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Speaker 1: and enjoy to the world, what if this happens again

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Speaker 1: in two or three years time. Because there's almost a

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Speaker 1: sense of what's the word that This is not going

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Speaker 1: to be a consistent progress for the still works moving forward.

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Speaker 1: It almost feels like and looking at how Sande Gutta's

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Speaker 1: worldwide operations work, there's a sense of crisis that seems

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Speaker 1: to engulf each one periodically, each different inside.

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Speaker 2: That's right, status quo can't continue. There needs to be

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Speaker 2: a reinvestment, and a dramatic reinvestment. There needs to be

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Speaker 2: a direct iron reduction facility put in place. There needs

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Speaker 2: to be a new gas line upgrade to get more

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Speaker 2: gas to the plant to get them off coking coal

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Speaker 2: and operate direct iron reduction. There needs to be an

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Speaker 2: electric art furnace put in place. There needs to be

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Speaker 2: an upgrade of the mines, which is well underway, to

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Speaker 2: get through the last stage of the hemoplane onto the

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Speaker 2: really big magnetite reserves. It's a stage process. We're very

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Speaker 2: keen to try and make sure that we can help,

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Speaker 2: and we've got our fifty million dollars on the table

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Speaker 2: to assist. But you're right, Matthew, it can't keep on

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Speaker 2: going the way it's going. There needs to be a

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Speaker 2: dramatic upgrade of the way other still works, and that

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Speaker 2: upgrade needs to be sequential thought through business cases and

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Speaker 2: business plans put in place. We benefit cost ratios calculator

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Speaker 2: and the commonwealths government and the state government and the

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Speaker 2: company sitting down and working out exactly how we get

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Speaker 2: it done. And we're up for that. What we need

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Speaker 2: of course as a partner, and that partner needs to

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Speaker 2: be the still Works. And I was very disappointed when

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Speaker 2: the plans for the direct lin reduction to selling the

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Speaker 2: regard burners were put on hold that that was very,

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Speaker 2: very painful for the town. But we've got to get

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Speaker 2: through this period to make sure we can get to

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Speaker 2: the next month. So we're basically without We wanted to

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Speaker 2: use too many sporting analogies. We've had this one day

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Speaker 2: at a time and we would get to the future.

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Speaker 2: We've got to be supportive and that's what we're trying

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Speaker 2: to do.

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Speaker 1: Okay, the plans to switch on hydrogen in the future

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Speaker 1: with this, I mean, it's all very reliant, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: They're in the dependent almost Getting the hydrogen plan up

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Speaker 1: and running requires the still Works to keep operating. Is

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Speaker 1: the government likely to put money on the table for

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Speaker 1: SANDI to keep operating?

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Speaker 2: It depends on the circumstances. Leave the blast furnace in

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Speaker 2: our opinion, must be maintained and tools. That's a transition

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Speaker 2: that's very very important, and toil that transition is invested in.

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Speaker 2: We've got to keep the blast furnace open. That's six

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Speaker 2: hundred jobs minimum here in Wala. That's a big, big

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Speaker 2: part of their employment base. So we're very very key

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Speaker 2: to keep that operation or tool. That's a reinvestment in

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Speaker 2: a direct iron reduction facility to manufacture oprocredittored iron which

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Speaker 2: can be used to make steel and long products. So

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Speaker 2: there's lots we can do up here. But hydrogen, gas

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Speaker 2: and coal are the steps. So the first step is

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Speaker 2: you use coking coil to make to make iron that

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Speaker 2: releases about two tons of carbon for every ton of

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Speaker 2: iron you make. If you move to gas as a

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Speaker 2: dramatic step down to about six hundred kilograms of carbon

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Speaker 2: dioxide released for every ton of iron you make. And

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Speaker 2: when you move down to hydrogen you release no and

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Speaker 2: dark side at all. So the step down is what

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Speaker 2: we're interested in. So the next step is gas and

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Speaker 2: after that the next step is hydrogen, which is why

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Speaker 2: we're building our hydrogen and electoralizer in YR.

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Speaker 1: All right, the opposition claiming you're going to have to

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Speaker 1: truck gas in though that was in the mail yesterday,

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Speaker 1: is that correct position?

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Speaker 2: We're always we're going to need to do this because

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Speaker 2: what we want to do is have a gas storage

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Speaker 2: facility there as well. Because you might remember, Matthew after

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Speaker 2: the last state wide blackout, the then state government bought

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Speaker 2: two hundred and seventy megawats of backup emergency generation that

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Speaker 2: could be used for emergency reserves, and then Marshall government

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Speaker 2: sold that, so we don't have any backup generation. So

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Speaker 2: what we've decided is that one you need the gas

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Speaker 2: obviously for the startup and shut down processes of any generator,

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Speaker 2: so that's why we need the gas. But if there's

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Speaker 2: a renewable route and there's a statewide emergency, we'll have

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Speaker 2: the gas as a backup. Now, I make no apologies

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Speaker 2: for you gas. This government knows that gas is part

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Speaker 2: of the transition to net zero, and I've got to

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Speaker 2: say what's wrong with gas? What's wrong with using gas

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Speaker 2: in a gas via generator? And I think the opposition

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Speaker 2: need to get their attack lines a bit better thought through,

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Speaker 2: because I'm not apologizing to anyone for having back up

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Speaker 2: emergency gas via generation of Baila balls.

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Speaker 1: I think their argument is you've got a truck it there,

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Speaker 1: so it's it's supplied by diesel. Ultimately, well, there it is.

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Speaker 2: That's just the dumbest thing I've heard anyone say. It

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Speaker 2: really is silly.

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Speaker 1: So you're trucking it there.

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Speaker 2: Of course we're trusting it there. But I mean, we

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Speaker 2: use diesel in our ambulance fleet, we use we use

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Speaker 2: diesel in our fire engines. But this is this is

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Speaker 2: not getting ridiculous. It really is a ridiculous attack by

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Speaker 2: the opposition.

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Speaker 1: So there's nothing odd about trucking gas using diesel things

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Speaker 1: to negate the point of having gas, doesn't it. And

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Speaker 1: I'm with you on gas. We need gas for energy.

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Speaker 1: There's no doubt about that.

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Speaker 2: The pipeline to Wyala can be used as well. This

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Speaker 2: is about making sure that we have sufficient backup reserves

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Speaker 2: in case of an emergency to fill a storage facility.

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Speaker 2: They are just being silly back Dawail.

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Speaker 1: A lot are people there on the ground telling you

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Speaker 1: about their concerns. You must have heard some stories already.

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Speaker 2: Yes, you know. The best place to hear concerned is

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Speaker 2: to go to the Westlands. And I went and I

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Speaker 2: don't want your listeners to get upset. But I say

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Speaker 2: in the front bar for a while to chat a

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Speaker 2: few locals and chat to the owner of the pub.

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Speaker 2: And I met with a mayor and we had a

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Speaker 2: chat about what's going on. And there's a lot of

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Speaker 2: anxiety in the town, a lot of anxiety, and the

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Speaker 2: anxiety is real, it's affecting people. A lot of the

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Speaker 2: concerns are that there's a lot of anticipation about what's

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Speaker 2: occurring in Wyalem. They know that they've got the raw

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Speaker 2: products and the foundations for a really bright future, but

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Speaker 2: we're just sort of stuck here waiting for the big

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Speaker 2: reveals to be actually being implemented that mister Cook has

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Speaker 2: talked about. There's a lot of anxiety about that. And

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Speaker 2: I think what I found interesting there was almost a

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Speaker 2: little bit more anxiety than there's been previously with the

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Speaker 2: Arian administration. There's a bit more. Well, we've been through

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Speaker 2: this once, why do we have to go through a

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Speaker 2: weekends a lot of feeling And I understand that, and

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Speaker 2: that's why we're up here to reassure people that the

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Speaker 2: state government's got their pack and we want to make

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Speaker 2: sure that there's a long future for the Storks.

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Speaker 1: All right, just before I let you go yesterday, big

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Speaker 1: announcement on some road funding for the Mount Barker region.

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Speaker 2: Mount Barker and Verdance getting two brand new interchanges, were

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Speaker 2: duplicating the bridge at Mount Barker. We're building a massive

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Speaker 2: round about end of Adelaide Road to try and decongest

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Speaker 2: Mount Barker and get that interchange operating properly because it

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Speaker 2: can get very, very busy in the mornings. And they've

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Speaker 2: done interchange is about a full interchange there as well,

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Speaker 2: which will leave out a lot of traffic in handles

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Speaker 2: and get a lot of people onto the freeway fast.

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Speaker 2: We're having to use back roads through main streets and

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Speaker 2: through small country town so it's a good way of

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Speaker 2: decongesting a eight hills and taking full years of the freeway.

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Speaker 1: All right. And for Harndorf, okay, done will help, But

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Speaker 1: in terms of what they've been calling for and getting

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Speaker 1: ramps build and all the rest, any announcement on that.

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Speaker 2: Suit no, Matthew. Look, in the short term, we've taken

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Speaker 2: the trucks off the main street of Harndorff and it's worked.

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Speaker 2: River Road is working exceptionally well. We're not seeing the

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Speaker 2: big livestock trucks through the main street. I was in

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Speaker 2: Handorf on Sunday and it was a very pleasant, very

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Speaker 2: pleasant morning walk with no big trucks going through the

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Speaker 2: main street. And I think the solution's worked, and it's

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Speaker 2: worked well.

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Speaker 1: It's still very busy though. You go through that even

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Speaker 1: a week day is jam packed with cars.

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Speaker 2: And this is the point, right, The point is is

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Speaker 2: that Harndorf is a destination, not just a drive through city.

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Speaker 2: I mean, there are a million people are years to

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Speaker 2: visit Harndorf. Harndorf's never going to be a quiet, sleepy town.

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Speaker 2: It's always going to be a very very busy, important

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Speaker 2: touristic action for the state. The question for us is

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Speaker 2: do livestock trucks belong in the main streat of Harndorff.

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Speaker 2: And the answer to that question is no, they don't.

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Speaker 2: We've gotten them off it. But the people of Harndorff,

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Speaker 2: I think I've seen the real benefits of what the

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Speaker 2: government's done, and I think by and large, the people

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Speaker 2: of Harndorf are very very happy with a solution. I

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Speaker 2: think the people who are still unhappy are the people

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Speaker 2: live on River Road. But there's always going to be

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Speaker 2: a diversion when you take these trucks off. And what

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Speaker 2: we found is there are thirteen extra trucks a day

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Speaker 2: on River Road and that's been the impact, and those

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Speaker 2: residents are still aren't happy with that.

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Speaker 1: Right, thirteen trucks a day more only yes, okay, well

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Speaker 1: how many would that going up and down the main street.

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Speaker 1: It would have been more than that per day.

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Speaker 2: That's right, but there weren't. But these trucks have found

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Speaker 2: alternative ways to get where they're going because they're banned.

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Speaker 2: They can't use the main street anymore. So the diversion

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Speaker 2: has worked. The ban on big trucks has worked, and

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Speaker 2: it has helped get those big livestock trucks, those big

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Speaker 2: logging trucks off the main street of handles, and that's

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Speaker 2: what the aim was.

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Speaker 1: Tom Kutz and tonis appreciate your time today. Good luck

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Speaker 1: up in Wayla. I hope the people up there get

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Speaker 1: some sense of peace, I suppose as to what the

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Speaker 1: future holds for them. Thank you, thank you for your time,

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Speaker 1: the Energy Minister, Tom Kutz and Toni's