Whyalla locals react to steelworks intervention with hope for brighter future

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Residents in Whyalla have welcomed the state government's decision to tip the Whyalla steelworks into administration. Workers and business owners say job losses and local business closures have been a continued stressor for locals.

Transcript

00:00There was jubilation in Wayala when Sanjeev Gupta first took over the steelworks.

00:06This man is a great Australian.

00:08Now there's just relief that he's gone.

00:10Every one business, the community and the workers, the responses I've had have been

00:15very positive.

00:16I'm actually amazed that it hasn't happened before now.

00:20In this one industry town, GFG's flailing management of the steelworks has caused major

00:25issues for small businesses in the last 12 months, with many local contractors joining

00:30the long list of creditors owed money to, some even without a direct link feeling the

00:35pinch.

00:36We're now getting it where a lot of those smaller businesses aren't being paid by the

00:40contractors to GFG because GFG hasn't been paying their bills.

00:45I think every business in town's felt it.

00:47It's obviously been a tough probably six to 12 months, certainly since the blast furnace

00:52has been offline, things have got tougher and tougher for the community.

00:57And after reaching an impasse with the state government, many are glad to see GFG's time

01:01at the steelworks come to an end.

01:03Something needed to change.

01:05Obviously we couldn't continue down this road of uncertainty.

01:08GFG have played a pretty hard game.

01:11The umpire's called time on it and I think we need to move forward.

01:15Now it's done the hard yards.

01:17The town is looking forward to the next chapter for both the steelworks and itself.

01:22And some hope for Wyala to reinvent itself and move away from its reliance on the steel

01:27industry.

01:28We've got the rail system, we've got the deep sea port, we've got the natural resource,

01:32we've got the sun, we've got the wind.

01:34It just all has to fall into place.

01:36There's a lot of work to be done at the steelworks to pull the steelworks back to where it should

01:42be.

01:43The hard work starts tomorrow.

01:45A town heading again into the unknown, but hopeful the next step will be forward, not

01:49back.

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