"Didn't reach the threshold": Minister defends rejecting call for aluminium import safeguards

The Government says the legal test wasn't passed for safeguards for the aluminium sector amidst a flood of cheaper imports from China. 

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer declined a request for the measures to protect them. 

The sector says thousands of jobs are at risk, warning local production has slowed down 40%. 

Brewer told Mike Hosking there's been MBIE investigators looking into this. 

He says they spent 85 days pulling this report together, but found it didn't meet the threshold for him to sign it off. 

The Minister also says it's not imported products alone causing the heartache. 

Brewer told Hosking there's a range of factors including lower construction activity, rising production costs, and waning business and consumer confidence. 

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