Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Tasmania today, announcing a $200 million bailout for the Bell Bay aluminium smelter in a jointly funded relief package handed out alongside the state government.
Albanese said today was “a fantastic day” for the 550 workers at the Rio Tinto owned facility, who now have “certainty going forward” over their job security.
“The theme of our budget was reform and resilience. We need to ensure that in today’s uncertain world, we be less dependent upon imports and that we’re able to ensure that we manufacture things for domestic purposes, but also that we manufacture for export as well,” Albanese told journalists in Tasmania.
Rio Tinto’s Bell Bay aluminium smelter on the Tamar River in Tasmania.
“This is a great day. I’m so pleased to be able to meet with workers this morning. Workers who’ve come either from Queensland, we met people from South America, people who’ve come here to make their future for themselves, but in doing the work that they’re doing, they’re also helping to make that future here in Australia.”
Speaking alongside the prime minister, Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff said the level of cooperation he had experienced from the federal government on the matter was “extraordinary”.
“The outcome we have today is the security of over 500 jobs at Bell Bay Aluminum, but also the 1,000 jobs that are relied on this facility as well, spread right across northern Tasmania. This is vital for our Tasmanian economy, which is why we’ve all worked so hard together. What this means is effectively $5 billion of economic injection into Tasmania, particularly northern Tasmania, over the course of the next five years,” Rockliff said.