The Big Issue: Saving Our Smelters in 2025

This year, Australia’s smelters faced a reckoning. Five major facilities, directly employing over three thousand workers and supporting tens of thousands more, were at serious risk of closure.

These resource regions and towns, like the Hunter, Whyalla, Mount Isa, Port Pirie, Townsville and Hobart, are the engine room of Australia. And we know that once a smelter closes, it’s gone for good.

Now, at the end of 2025, the Tomago, Glencore and Nyrstar smelters, and the Whyalla steelworks, have all secured a vital lifeline – the result of hard work between state and federal governments, industry, and the AWU.

But how did we avoid a potential crisis in our manufacturing sector? And what do we do next to realise a Future Made in Australia?

Manufacturers on the edge

In February, the South Australian Government forced the struggling Whyalla steelworks into administration and announced a joint investment package with the Federal Government to save around 1,200 jobs. In the months that followed, almost 100 new operators were hired, and the steelworks is being considered by multiple buyers.

With plentiful magnetite ore, and excellent wind and solar resources, Whyalla has the potential to become a global green iron and steel powerhouse. It’s now up to industry and government to fully realise it.

Six months later, Nyrstar’s Port Pirie and Hobart smelters received a welcome rescue package from the Tasmanian, South Australian and Federal Governments, shoring up  around 1,400 regional jobs, and many more indirectly down the supply chain. Nyrstar’s Port Pirie lead smelter is the only of its kind in Australia, and the Hobart zinc smelter is the largest in the country. After a century of operation, both smelters are now looking to the future, with the aim of becoming a critical minerals hub in the coming years.

In October, the Queensland and Federal Governments joined forces and announced a rescue package to secure over 1000 jobs at the Glencore copper smelter in Mount Isa and refinery in Townsville, the largest of their kind in Australia. This came after months of campaigning from the AWU, and the closure of the Mount Isa mines in July of this year.

AWU delegates travelled 2,400km to Canberra to tell the government directly what the smelter’s closure would mean to their families and the Mount Isa community, and it made a real difference in our fight to save the smelter.

And just this month, the NSW and Federal Governments have committed to work with Rio Tinto to ensure the Tomago aluminium smelter remains operational. Consuming 10% of the state’s power supply, Tomago relies on affordable energy to survive.

While the details are yet to be ironed out, December’s announcement means over 1,100 jobs are assured as we head into Christmas – a welcome relief for the Hunter after many months of uncertainty.

For all five smelters, the AWU was a crucial negotiator between industry and government, and at every step, we put our members’ futures first. It’s fantastic to see this work pay off, but we know it won’t cure Australia’s manufacturing woes on its own. If we want to realise a Future Made in Australia, saving our smelters is just the start of it.

A real reservation

Gas is the next big opportunity. In the coming weeks, the Federal Government is poised to announce an east coast gas reservation – something the AWU has been calling for since 2014. We understand there’s two options on the table, and we’re pushing for a reservation that will actually make a real difference to our skyrocketing energy costs.

That means a reservation that covers all gas projects on the east coast, not just new ones as they open up; government powers to set prices and shelter manufacturers from price shocks; and a requirement that all exporters supply the domestic market first before they can send gas overseas.

We haven’t waited 11 years for a scheme that just tinkers at the edges, and we will continue to fight for a real reservation that will meaningfully lower prices and relieve the pressure on Australian manufacturing.

And there’s more we must do for our manufacturers. Many facilities are forced to compete with cut-price imported products, often of substandard quality. Governments could help prevent this by cracking down on dumping and giving the Anti-Dumping Commission real teeth to deal with importers who dump product on our shores.

And local procurement laws would mean that contractors building our roads, tunnels, and other key infrastructure would be required to use a percentage of Australian steel, cement, aluminium, and other domestically produced materials.

These changes would address unfairness and past policy failures and give Australian manufacturers a real edge. They’re on our agenda as we head into 2026. Our major smelters look safe for now, but the AWU will always be ready to take up the fight to protect our manufacturing sector and hundreds of thousands of blue collar workers across Australia!