Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Hansard source

We heard an extraordinary set of words from the Treasurer in question time today. I know he has been a bit rattled and is a bit nervous these days, but it was really quite an extraordinary comment. He said, 'Business employs a lot of people.' Well, you have got to be Sherlock to get that one, don't you—that business employs a lot of people! He might need a few other economics lessons as well. It is actually the real world out there that creates wealth and creates income. As governments, we do not do that. Governments and parliaments do not create wealth. Those members of parliament who get the opportunity to form government actually take money away from the businesses who employ people and redistribute it. They are the wealth creators—the real world out there and the business community. So thank you, Treasurer, for stating the obvious, that business employs a lot of people. But what you are doing in your budget and with your carbon tax is ensuring that business employs a hell of a lot fewer people.

Do not believe the coalition; do not believe me—all you need to do is visit manufacturing hubs right around the country. Go from one end of Australia to the other, to a small or medium sized family firm, a successful firm that is innovative, that has evolved, that competes, that works on a very small margin. Ask them whether they will be able to employ a lot of people when your carbon tax comes in. Ask a large steel fabricator whether they will be employing a lot of people when the carbon tax comes in. You know what? They will tell you that they will not. They will tell you that they do not live in a protected economic environment. They will be priced out of the market by imports that do not have a carbon tax imposed on them. So this is a tax on Australian innovation and on Australian business and it will not reduce emissions. By sending them to less efficient countries, by sending manufacturing to countries that do not have the same environmental laws as we do, what will happen is that we will actually increase emissions. This genius of a Treasurer, who admitted today that business employs a lot of people, is doing his damnedest as part of the minority Gillard government that is beholden to Bob Brown and to those loopy people who occupy those Green spots in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, and is beholden to their less than mainstream approach, shall I say, to job creation in this country.

We knew that the Treasurer was in trouble on budget night. In the over nine years it is now that I have had the privilege of representing the people of Indi in the House of Representatives, there is one thing I have seen on budget night. That is the Treasurer's own colleagues, at the conclusion of the budget speech, applauding him. They applaud him, go up to him, pat him on the back, give him a hug and some of them give him a kiss. Guess what was missing from this year's budget: there was no applause. The galleries were empty, the Labor backbench was rather morose and you knew that poor old Swanny was in for a very difficult time. Perhaps the problem is that he is out of his depth. He is out of his depth if he has only just realised that business employs a lot of people. He is out of his depth in delivering a budget that will enable Australians to be innovative, to build businesses and to take this nation to even higher living standards and greater employment.

It is quite fascinating that, for a government so obsessed with spin and symbolic gestures, they failed on this occasion with that very symbolic gesture—that is, giving poor old Swanny a clap and a pat on the back.

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