As administrators of the ailing Whyalla Steelworks prepare to assess the best and final bids for the steel plant, the federal government has announced it will spend an extra $222.6 million on the piece of infrastructure.

In last night’s federal budget, Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced extra funding for the continued “support and stabilisation” of the Whyalla Steelworks during administration.

It adds to more than $2 billion in state and federal government support for the facility, the only of its kind in Australia able to make long steel products for construction and rail lines.

The new funding announcement comes as the blast furnace at the steelworks remains offline for maintenance after a “cooling incident” where the ageing infrastructure was not retaining enough heat to be able to produce steel.

InDaily understands the blast furnace will be back online in coming days, with administrators setting a mid-May target for the resumption of operations, administrators KordaMentha confident of finding a buyer by the September due date.

There are five parties shortlisted to buy the steelworks, including Japanese, Korean, Indian and Australian parties. A mining consortium, widely tipped to be led by Australian steelmaker BlueScope Steel, is also in the shortlist that was narrowed down after interest from 70 worldwide parties.

South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis today said administrators were “getting very close to the pointy end of the sale”.

What’s in the budget for SA?

You might like

In Depth

From footy to First Nations Ambassador: Adam Goodes’ new uni gig

In Depth

Why has this autumn been so hot and dry?

Money set aside for projects in South Australia in the federal budget ranges from defence spending on the AUKUS submarine project to mental health funding and millions for the Australian Space Agency.

The Adelaide Crows are a winner, receiving $4.5 million to support the construction of the Adelaide Football Club sports precinct, currently being built at Thebarton and expected to be completed this year.

You might like

In Depth

From footy to First Nations Ambassador: Adam Goodes’ new uni gig

In Depth

Why has this autumn been so hot and dry?

And a pot of money for “development of a new innovation and cultural precinct in the city centre” – including the Tarrkarri project – remains in the budget, although the quarantined cash was unlikely to be enough to prompt the state government into making the long-awaited Indigenous Cultural Centre a reality.

But funding for the Adelaide freight bypass – which would move heavy vehicles off regional roads and a hotly contested issue during last year’s Federal Election campaign – was not included in Chalmers’ fifth federal budget.

Koutsantonis said he was “sticking to our guns” on the project wanting to secure an 80/20 funding split with the Commonwealth government for the project that would take trucks off Portrush Road and the South Eastern Freeway. The Federal Liberals had committed to funding the project.

“The real benefits are on national resilience and national freight improvements,” Koutsantonis said on ABC radio this morning.

“I can’t in good conscience move, because we’d be borrowing 40 per cent of the money to have a national improvement in a national freight network where the major beneficiaries are not South Australians.

“I get it takes trucks off Portrush Road, I get it takes trucks off the South Eastern Freeway, but the major beneficiaries are the national freight improvements.

“Why should South Australians have to put up a lot of the heavy lifting for a national improvement?”

SA Shadow Treasurer Ben Hood said Koutsantonis needed more “turning of the screws” to ensure the federal government funds the project.

“It’s vitally important that we do have that nation-building project in the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass,” Hood said.

“This is ultimately a budget of broken promises, and it is leaving South Australians worse off.”

Local South Australian roads will get $85.5 million of funding over the next four years, while Adelaide Zoo will receive $3.8 million to feed and care for Adelaide’s two giant pandas Xing Qiu and Yi Lan.

Space

The Australian Space Agency, based at Adelaide’s Lot Fourteen, will get $21.7 million in funding over the next two years, as it works on developing the national space sector.

And defence spending in SA is growing, including $7.5 million for an AUKUS planning study and business case for key transport infrastructure upgrades in the state for the major ship and submarine building program.

The government will also provide Australian Naval Infrastructure with an equity injection over four years to support the construction of the Nuclear-Powered Submarine Construction Yard at Osborne, funded through existing resources of the Department of Defence.

The government did not publish exactly how much this would cost because it “would impair ANI’s position in negotiating contracts for these services”.

And health is another focus for federal spending in SA, with $4.1 million to be spent this year to extend aftercare services for South Australians discharged from hospital after a suicide attempt.

An expansion of the Flinders Medical Centre to add 128 more beds will be funded via $189.5 million in federal money.

There is also $1.7 million to extend access to culturally appropriate, multidisciplinary mental health and wellbeing services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and to improve integration of those services in South Australia.

In terms of education, the federal government will spend $22 million for non-government schools in South Australia that provide an 18-month reception program.

And $66.3 million was spent by the federal government to support the state government on initiatives to respond to the impacts of the harmful algal bloom.

This delivered a suite of initiatives focused on maintaining the well-being of the community, protecting the environment and ensuring business and industry resilience, budget papers read.