[Ferro-Alloys.com] Interview with Leon Compton, ABC Hobart

Interviewer Leon Compton

Subject Interview discusses future of Nyrstar smelter in Hobart, Future of Liberty Bell Bay smelter, and Tasmania’s manufacturing and innovation opportunities.

E&OE

LEON COMPTON, HOST: Tim Ayres, Federal Industry and Innovation Minister in the Labor government nationally, Tim Ayres, good morning to you.

SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: G’day, Leon. Very good to talk to you and to talk to your listeners.

COMPTON: Minister, what exactly do Nyrstar want?

AYRES: Well, I don’t want to disappoint you, Leon, by giving this answer, but I’m required to, of course –

COMPTON: I could just ask the same question five more times. What exactly do Nyrstar want, Tim Ayres?

AYRES: We are working very closely with not just the government of Tasmania but also the government of South Australia too. These facilities are closely related to each other and are experiencing the same kind of – the same kind of – pressures largely – largely – as a result of the global market, well, let’s call it volatility and overcapacity. And we’re working very closely together to develop the most effective response. Absolutely understand the time pressure here and the importance of this facility not just for Hobart’s economy but for Tasmania as a whole.

COMPTON: And so what is on the table as a result of that?

AYRES: Well, this set of discussions that we’re engaged in, including with Nyrstar and their parent company of course you would expect, firstly, that as we’re developing our approach those details are not – I’m not here to announce details on your program this morning. But I read closely the CEO Matt Howell’s piece in the paper this morning. That’s a pretty good indication of the kind of future that Trafigura and Nyrstar are painting as the potential commercial future for that facility.

What they are doing is pointing to a future critical minerals processing capacity alongside their current metals capacity. And that is a good thing for the future. We want to see – we want to see – a commercial future for this facility. It’s got strong markets.

COMPTON: For this facility. One view might be, Tim Ayres, that if you’re going to subsidise a zinc processing operation it might be more economic to start at a greenfield site and somewhere completely new. Why Nyrstar? Why on the banks of the Derwent?

AYRES: Well, there’s an existing facility there that provides employment for good jobs for Tasmanians, good jobs in the Hobart economy, and also the parallel facility in South Australia. So, of course we’re working with that facility to scope out what the future could be. That’s what Tasmanians and that’s what Australians would expect the federal government to do. We are determined to secure a future for minerals processing here in Australia now, but also for our broader Future Made in Australia objectives, which are about making sure that Australia isn’t just exporting ore to the world – we’re an excellent mining economy. We deliver some of the world’s best mining capability – but that we’re processing Australian ores here in Australia, going up the value chain, creating good jobs and putting Australia in a more economically resilient and stronger strategic position.

COMPTON: Tim Ayres is our guest this morning, federal Minister for Industry and Innovation. We spoke to Andrew Wilkie a week or so ago. He said you understand the issue – and he was talking about you specifically, Minister – you understand the issue but you may not understand the urgency. What is the level of urgency to resolve Nyrstar’s issues so that it continues operating in Tasmania?

AYRES: Well, we are acting on the basis that this is urgent. This is an important – important – facility. It’s one of a number of smelting capabilities around the country that are in challenging circumstances, and we’re working with governments around Australia, state governments around Australia, to secure the best result in the national interest. There are, of course, a set of economic and social benefits here to this kind of production. But also as a government we are very focused on the rationale that drives our Future Made in Australia agenda – that is, making sure that we’re taking steps to secure a future economy which makes Australia more economically resilient but also captures the natural advantages and the competitive advantages that Australia has to deliver good jobs a stronger future.

COMPTON: Greg Barns, who’s a prominent Tasmanian thinker, former sort of Liberal Party member, human rights lawyer, also had an opinion piece that sat next to the CEO of Nyrstar’s opinion piece today in the paper. Greg Barns is saying on this issue as well, he said, look, money had already been offered for them to upgrade some of their infrastructure, some of it as old as a hundred years, and it hadn’t been utilised. What’s going on there? Like, is the company asking you to fund upgrades to their smelting capacity?

AYRES: Well, we – there is – there are announcements that had already been made in relation to support for Nyrstar. Obviously we’re putting all of this – all of this – together to determine what is the best way forward for Nyrstar and the best way forward for this capability in the national interest. I didn't read Greg’s opinion piece, but he’s right to point to those questions. We are determined to make sure that if there’s support there that the commonwealth has already offered in conjunction with the Tasmanian government, that if we continue to deliver that that’s actually delivered in a way that meets the strategic objective here - that is, securing the future of this facility.

COMPTON: Can you guarantee that will happen?

AYRES: We’ll continue to work away on those details.

COMPTON: Can you guarantee that will happen, Tim Ayres? Can you guarantee that Nyrstar will continue to operate in doing what it does with zinc and sulphuric acid and the other byproducts of zinc manufacturing processing? Can you guarantee it will continue to operate here?

AYRES: Well, what I can say, Leon, is we want it to continue to operate. It’s very important for Tasmania’s economy that it continues to operate. We’re working very hard to achieve that outcome. But these are very challenging issues. It requires commonwealth and the state and, in this case, in reality, the two state governments to be working together in lockstep to achieve the best outcome in the national interest and in the interests of Tasmanians and the hundreds of Tasmanians and their families who work there.

COMPTON: How closely are you working with the state government on this issue? Tasmania?

AYRES: Well, as you’d expect, very closely with the state government. Of course, you’re in the middle of an election now and that means that, you know, teams of officials are working closely together. We’re not letting – we’re not letting – that get in the way of continuing to work away on the details here. And we’re engaged very thoroughly with the government of South Australia as well.

We – the Albanese government, you know, we work with state governments right across Australia and, you know, we don’t distinguish in the way that we deal with governments on the basis of their politics. We are determined to deliver near the national interest, and we’ll keep doing that.

COMPTON: You’re on 936 ABC Radio Hobart, ABC Northern Tasmania. Tim Ayres, federal Minister for Industry and Innovation is our guest this morning. And wherever you’re listening around Tasmania, Nyrstar is a huge part of – well, it’s one of our major industrials, it’s a huge part of the energy network and, as you heard the minister mention, part of the sort of national minerals supply chain.

Tim Ayres, while we have you there let’s talk about Liberty Bell Bay. It’s another business – this one owned by Sanjeev Gupta’s operations – that has announced a temporary suspension of its operations, talking about supply chain issues, but with people asking questions about its future. What work, if any, are you doing to understand or support Liberty Bell Bay at the moment?

AYRES: Well, the commonwealth government, the Albanese government, is very engaged here to understand – I think on my first or second day of being in the job I commissioned a rapid assessment of the situation around Liberty Bell Bay. We have undertaken that work and will continue to work these issues through with the government of Tasmania. Tasmania as a government has been working directly with the facility.

The underlying question here – I mean, this is – this manganese smelting facility is a commercially successful facility. It has strong markets, supplies the Australian steel industry and also exports to the US steel industry. It has got a compelling commercial future. What is required here is for its parent company to fulfil its obligations and to invest and to demonstrate that it is operating in the best interests of Liberty Bell Bay and the best interests of that community. That’s what I want to see. That’s the primary focus here. There is a very strong underlying business case for that facility and it requires responsible stewardship from its owner.

COMPTON: How are you going with dealing with – it’s Sanjeev Gupta, isn’t it, whose Whyalla operations previously got taken back over or put into administration by the South Australian government. Are you frustrated by how you’ve gone in trying to understand the true financial position of the operation?

AYRES: Well, all I’ll say is I want to see progress, and so do Tasmanians and so does the community in Bell Bay and the surrounding town. We want to see progress. And it is the case that the commonwealth and South Australia intervened in – intervened – in Whyalla. That’s – we did that in the national interest and in the interests of South Australia.

What I want to see here is this company back in full production processing Australian manganese ore from Groote Eylandt, which is now – your listeners might understand this, but the Australian ore facility was knocked out for a period after a Tropical Cyclone Megan damaged their wharf facilities. That has created some uncertainty about ore supply. Ore supply from Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory is back up and going. I want to see this operation back up and going in full swing selling to markets in Australia and overseas, principally in the United States. And I think I and Tasmanians want to see that happen fast.

COMPTON: Tim Ayres is our guest this morning. Just a final question, Minister: as you sort of settle in after an election that was only a couple of months ago now, when you think about innovation in Australia, how do you think about the opportunities in Tasmania right now? It’s an interesting portfolio title – Minister for Innovation. So what does innovation look like for Tasmania over the life of this parliament and beyond?

AYRES: Well, innovation is that part of industry policy that is all about firms investing in new capability and new technology to develop new production here in Australia. Tasmania does have enormous capabilities here. Your hydro electric power system, principally hydro, does create all sorts of opportunities for Tasmania to be producing zero emissions product for the rest of the world. That means that you’ve got in your hands in Tasmania the opportunity for industrial investment and for the productivity dividend that comes from industry investment. Like, that’s where there is enormous opportunity in the economy to create good jobs and to lift – and to lift – the level of state productivity as well to spread the benefits.

COMPTON: I hear what you’re saying, and we reflect on that, because the major industrials – and we’ve just talked about two of them – have been here, the most recent arrived maybe 70 years ago and others a century or so ago. Where are the new opportunities that Tasmania is taking as a state to take advantage of that renewable energy resource, notwithstanding constraints on that at the moment? Like, I wonder where the next opportunity is coming from given that it's decades since the last big employer in that space settled in.

AYRES: Well, let me – I’m aware of some of the new technology here in battery technology and battery technology related to data centre investment in Tasmania where there’s enormous opportunities there to make sure that Tasmania has got a foothold in the global digital economy as well.

They really aren’t that different. Often in the commentary about these sectors it’s as if data centres and digital infrastructure are somehow different to a lead smelter or an aluminium smelter or manganese smelter. Actually, what it requires is access to power, innovation and industrial capability and skilled and resilient Tasmanians who can staff these facilities. Tasmania has got the ingredients; what it needs is a strong partnership between commonwealth government, the state government and the private sector and our industrial research capabilities top deliver strong innovation and industrial policy outcomes for Tasmania.

You’ve got a strong industrial history, as you point to – some of these facilities more than a hundred years. As you said, the most recent investment in one of these facilities, 70 years ago. But Tasmania has a strong industrial future. We’re just going to have to work hard to deliver it.

COMPTON: I appreciate you talking with us this morning.

AYRES: Thanks, Leon.

COMPTON: Tim Ayres, Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation.

7 July 2025

• [Editor:tianyawei]