Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

I understand that the member for Bowman finds certain facts inconvenient, but it has been said by the Motor Traders Association of Australia—it has been established—that if this support had not been offered to the car dealers late last year there would have been 500 dealers out of business and the potential loss of 75,000 direct and indirect jobs. The cascade effect into the component industry and the production of automobiles in Australia would have been diabolical. Indeed, the impact upon the bottom line of state revenues would also have been serious. This was the issue that the Treasurer was dealing with. These trumped-up charges that somehow one dealer was getting special attention are not borne out by an examination of the facts.

The truth of the matter is that this MPI is a desperate gesture because the opposition overplayed their hand. They relied on faulty information. They relied on verballing the Prime Minister’s staff at social functions. They have been hawking documents around like some tawdry, bizarre dealership. The questions which they should be offering to answer are: who has read this email; who were they giving it to; who gave the document to Senator Abetz; why was the Leader of the Opposition so confident that evidence was coming; who was doing the briefing; and, most importantly, who was doing the checking? Unfortunately, Wile E Coyote could not have done a better job of running out of cliff and getting himself into all sorts of trouble than the Leader of the Opposition. And that is the problem with the last two days: the opposition have wasted the time of the parliament of Australia—(Time expired)

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