Lights out for Sanjeev Gupta
Because multiple governments have enabled Gupta’s stalling tactics, small businesses on the Spencer Gulf are now owed vast sums of money they’ll be praying Peter Malinauskas will guarantee.
On Wednesday morning the South Australian government finally ended the miserable reign of international steel shyster Sanjeev Gupta as the proprietor of the crumbling Whyalla steelworks, tipping it into administration over tens of millions of dollars in overdue royalties and water bills.
South Australians are now mutinous, and why shouldn’t they be? Upon acquiring the Whyalla steelworks out of administration in 2017, Gupta pledged to spend $1 billion upgrading the facility, but never did. Then in 2020, he announced a $500 million upgrade with construction to begin in 2021. That never happened either.
Two years ago in the Australian Financial Review, I marvelled at the latest troupe of politicians – South Australia’s Premier Peter Malinauskas, his Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis and federal Industry Minister Ed Husic – legitimising Gupta’s ongoing hoax against taxpayers. They flew to Whyalla for the Gupta Family Group (GFG) Alliance's third announcement of the same fantasy investment in the steelworks, acting as if this was all completely normal! “How many times,” I asked, “will they be led down the garden path to nowhere by a man in a three-piece suit?”