Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, Mr Speaker—the reason we should not suspend standing orders is that in order to receive no support as result of these changes a single person has to earn above $124,000 a year and for a couple it is $248,000 a year. If we do not have a suspension of standing orders, we can get all those facts out there, with the scare campaign ending. Those opposite do not want members of this House to have an opportunity to debate these issues in full, in substance, because they always lose debates of substance. Those opposite are just reduced to saying no to absolutely everything—unless it is something to help the big end of town, in which case they say, 'Yes; how high can we jump?' That is the position they take.

We have a debate here about manufacturing. There were two or three questions about the economy today before those opposite got back in the gutter, which is the place they are most comfortable. The facts are that between 1996 and 2007, under the former government, manufacturing's share of GDP fell from 11.5 to 9.4 per cent—nearly a fifth. Its share of total employment declined from 12.8 to 9.9 per cent—from one in eight workers to less than one in 10 workers. They would have you believe that companies seeking to go offshore is a new phenomenon, but the former Prime Minister was happy to open the offshoring of Australian jobs. At the opening of BlueScope Steel in Vietnam, on 20 November 2006, he said it was a happy occasion, he hoped the company did well and hoped it made lots of money, paid taxes, as it would, repatriated money back to Australia and employed lots of Vietnamese people. That is what he had to say when he was opening a facility that would take jobs offshore from Australia.

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