Wielding a map and copies of a Mercury front page, two Illawarra MPs used parliament to attack the “smug indifference” of the Turnbull government when it comes to the Illawarra.
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Throsby MP Stephen Jones and Cunningham’s Sharon Bird were responding to the front page story in Tuesday’s Mercury that highlighted the fact that Industry Minister Christopher Pyne did not appear to know where the Illawarra is.
In answering a question without notice on Monday Mr Pyne referred to “areas such as Port Kembla in the Member for Gilmore’s electorate”.
The steelworks are in Ms Bird’s seat of Cunningham, on the border it shares with Ms Jones’ electorate of Throsby.
In a passionate speech, in which he offered a map to Mr Pyne that showed the Illawarra’s location, Mr Jones criticised the government’s response to the steel crisis.
“The people of the Illawarra are frustrated with the smug indifference of the Coalition government,” Mr Jones said.
The Throsby MP spoke of the steel summit Mr Pyne organised in Sydney in late October, which a number of people travelled from the Illawarra to attend.
“Many were very curious why we were making the trip from Wollongong to Sydney, but we played along with it because the issue was too important to quibble over,” Mr Jones said.
“Well we now know why the meeting was held in Sydney, because he hasn’t got a clue where the Illawarra is.”
Ms Bird said it was not a happy time for many in the Illawarra.
“As we go into the Christmas season, for hundreds of people in the Illawarra it's going to be a tough time because we've seen the loss of significant numbers of jobs at BlueScope Steel,” Ms Bird said.
Waving a copy of the Mercury’s front page, Ms Bird said the federal government has done little to help the Illawarra.
“We have seen nothing from the government in terms of a support program for our region, despite raising expectations they had some huge proposal that they were going to announce that would transform our region,” Ms Bird said.
The Cunningham MP felt the federal government needed to take action.
“It’s about time this government stepped in and gave the support it promised,” she said.