The South Australian Government has forced the embattled Whyalla steelworks into administration. The company owned by British billioniare Sanjeev Gupta has been in crisis and has been unable to pay tens of millions of dollars in royalty payments to the government and owes millions in unpaid bills to creditors. In an extraordinary move the SA Government rushed a bill through parliament taking the plant and its associated mines out of Mr Gupta's hands and into the management of administrators
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00:00There's long been a cloud over wireless steelworks, and the South Australian government says today
00:07the sky has begun to clear.
00:09This means that GFG are no longer running the wireless steelworks.
00:15The announcement follows an extraordinary morning in South Australia's parliament.
00:19In just a matter of minutes, a bill to force the steelworks into administration passed
00:23the lower and then the upper house, and soon the Premier and senior ministers were walking
00:28down North Terrace to get the Governor's assent.
00:31It's just too important.
00:32We couldn't have GFG holding back steelmaking in this country.
00:37The steelworks last went into administration in 2016.
00:41It was sold to British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, who recently secured approval for a
00:46major renovation on his $34 million Sydney Harbourside mansion.
00:51But his promises to upgrade and expand the Wyler plant haven't eventuated, and he has
00:56unpaid debts to contractors, companies and even the state government.
01:01GFG have played a pretty hard game.
01:03The umpire's called time on it, and I think we need to move forward.
01:08Hopefully there's something in there for the current creditors, because no one wants to
01:13see those companies get ten cents and a dollar or whatever, however it works.
01:18The Prime Minister is expected to travel to Wyler tomorrow, with plans to announce a support
01:23package for the city.
01:24We're big believers in the future of the Australian steel industry and Australian manufacturing
01:29more broadly.
01:30No government has been a bigger believer in a future made in Australia than ours.
01:34In a statement, GFG says it's assessing what the government's announcement means, and is
01:39seeking advice on its options.