A series of promises, including no more job cuts, from the owner of steelworks in Whyalla have been met with skepticism in the town. The embattled boss of GFG Alliance Sanjeev Gupta made the declarations during an interview with ABC News where he also claimed he was prioritising paying local businesses.
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00:00Justin Hoffman spent 20 years working at the steelworks and mines in Wyala.
00:07Now a produce farmer, he's avoided the recent troubles, but his business has been hit hard.
00:12We've lost half our income. This time last year we were at double where we are now.
00:17And we've lost friends and it's affecting everyone.
00:23He says morale in town remains low, despite GFG Alliance's owner declaring yesterday
00:28his ongoing commitment to Wyala.
00:30Everyone's still unsure of what's going to happen.
00:33We're unsure of what's going to happen.
00:35Even though they're making these promises, I'm not believing much.
00:39Sanjeev Gupta making assurances to the town in a one-on-one interview with the ABC.
00:43Our immediate job is to get the blast furnace up and running, stabilise operations,
00:48and we have a plan now to bring it back to full production, to take it back over a million tonnes.
00:52There's no cuts coming in the steel plant.
00:55In response, one business took to social media.
01:00The holding order's worth over $30,000. Try again, Sanjeev.
01:05Community leaders are watching closely.
01:07We judge on delivery and we don't judge on what people say.
01:12We've had a lot of promises in the past.
01:15And with plans for a switch from mining hematite iron ore to magnetite iron ore still in limbo,
01:20the union is unsure if recent job cuts will be the last.
01:24It's impossible to say definitely, because the hematite stream will come to an end.
01:31Young people are also being impacted.
01:33Hayden Cotterell hoped to stay and find work after finishing year 12 this year, but now plans to leave.
01:40It's kind of taken away any sense of security for after school, so the town feels less permanent.
01:48That sense of uncertainty weighing heavily on the town, with its vital blast furnace still offline.