The Labor Opposition’s six-point plan includes a pledge to maximise the use of Australian steel in federal government infrastructure projects and make sure the Australian standard applies to all steel in those projects.

On the one hand, the workers at BluesScope may well be grateful that someone in government was finally listening.

But at the same time they may also be wondering “why did it take so long?”

In August last year, BlueScope CEO Paul O’Malley delivered the shocking news that the Port Kembla plant could be closed by November.

Unless $500 million in cost savings were found, the company would be forced to switch off the furnace – which would mean the end of steelmaking at Port Kembla.

Illawarra residents well know how the story ended – the steelworks gates remained open, but at the cost of hundreds of jobs.

All the while, union representatives and members of the public pushed state and federal governments to do something to help.

The state government offered a three-year holiday from paying payroll tax, which did help BlueScope in the short term.

But the company still has to pay all that tax back – so the state government really hasn’t lost anything.

And the federal government seemed uninterested in doing all that much to save the Port Kembla steelworks.

Now, eight months later, a major party has finally addressed the issue of steel in an open fashion.

As unionists have pointed out, some of it is light on detail – such as just how the government plans on “maximising” the use of Australian steel in government projects.

Also, the lack of any mandatory minimums on steel usage will frustrate some campaigners who made 90 per cent or 100 per cent a key part of their platform.

Talk about getting tough on steel dumping is easy, the hard part will be transforming those words into actions.

But all of this still a step in the right direction. And it’s a step no other key political party seemed all that keen to make.

Whether it was Labor or Liberal who made that step didn't really matter – what’s important for our region is that someone has.