Press conference at Nyrstar Hobart zinc smelter
ED HUSIC, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE: Thank you Julie, and thanks to Dale and the team. And also, if I could just g'day to Brian and thank you for joining us. We said through the campaign that we wanted Australia to be a country that makes things – manufacturing is very important to the nation. It provides good, secure, long-term work. It's very good in terms of the firms that are producing product, not just for Australians, but also international clients, as well. And in terms of the work, it's largely secure, full-time work. But you can't have a plan for national manufacturing if it is only concentrated in a few parts of the country. Our perspective is if you don't have a plan that involves Tasmania, it's not worth a plan at all. So it's not a plan that you can be proud of. And what you see here today is a proud position of manufacturing - over 100 years of work here at Nyrstar. It's one of the largest smelters in the country, pumping out 280,000 tonnes of refined zinc. And it is generating all that not just for Australian needs, but also to Southeast Asia. And it's for work longer term too as we're making the energy transition, providing Zinc that's used, particularly for renewable technologies, and we want to see this continue and at scale and for it to grow. So what you're seeing today through the announcement we committed to through the election delivered in the budget, working with Nyrstar on a $400 million investment in modernising this facility is important, not just for Tasmania, but it's important for the country and it's valued by our near neighbours as well.
We want to make sure that the jobs that are generated here - there are 650 here, another 1000 in Port Pirie that are supported through Nyrstar's operations there. And then when you think about all the product that is delivered, about 5000 other jobs that are supported in the supply chain as well. So investing here has not just a Tasmanian impact, but as I said, a national one too. And we're proud as a Federal Government that what we said in the campaign, we will deliver, we'll work with Nyrstar and we'll see some great results. And I might invite my colleague Brian Mitchell to say a few words before we hand over to Dale.
ENDS