Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with some pleasure that I rise today to address this matter of public importance proposed by the member for North Sydney. I must say upfront that Tony Abbott and his economic team should stop trashing the Australian economy. They are trashing the Australian economy in every forum that they can. The reality is that we have a strong plan and a strong vision for the Australian economy. It is an economy that produces high-paying, high-skilled jobs. Tony Abbott and his economic team are trashing the Australian economy at every chance that they get.

Let us have a look at the record. Let us introduce some facts into this debate. The reality is that when we came to office in 2007 Australia and the world economy faced a depression set of circumstances. The Australian economy was at risk of going into recession, following Europe and the United States. Australia, the Australian government and the Australian Labor Party stepped up with an economic stimulus plan to protect jobs and the Australian economy. And guess what the Liberal Party did. They said no. Guess what Tony Abbott did. He could not even be bothered to go along and vote—he was too busy sleeping. That is how much he cares about the Australian economy. We care about jobs, we have a plan for this nation and we are taking steps to build a modern Australia. Let us go further than that. How many jobs are economists saying were protected or created as a consequence of our stimulus plan?

Seven hundred thousand jobs were created, and Tony Abbott was asleep at the wheel. The reality is that the Australian community is sick and tired of Tony Abbott and his financial goon squad standing over the Australian economy. We are building a nation. We are out there articulating a jobs plan, a plan to create opportunity for every Australian.

Let's go to the next opportunity for us to contrast what we are doing and what the opposition are doing. We are putting in place a modern national broadband network. This network will create opportunity for Australians. It will create opportunity for small businesses right throughout the economy. Guess what they stand for? They stand for saying 'no' to having a modern high-speed broadband network. They stand for denying rural and regional Australians the same internet speed as city folk. Again, it is trashing the opportunity for us to grow our economy.

Let's now go to manufacturing. There has been a lot of debate about manufacturing in more recent times. The Australian government has put in place a $5.4 billion new car plan to help support car manufacturing in this nation. A little earlier a member indicated that we are one of 12 countries that can produce motor vehicles from design right through to manufacture. Guess what their contribution to this debate is? It is to cut $500 million today from the new car plan, putting at risk an important sector of this economy. But they actually go further than that. They have indicated very clearly through statement after statement that in 2015 all support for the Australian motor vehicle industry will cease, if Tony Abbott is elected as Prime Minister. That will directly put at risk 200,000 jobs in the motor vehicle industry. It will put at risk 2,000 jobs in the Geelong economy and community. Again they have no plan to develop and grow our economy. The car industry is far more important to this country than almost any other sector because it is one of those catalyst industries that provide skills right throughout the economy. The Labor government believes in manufacturing motor vehicles. What do they stand for? Tony Abbott stands for no car industry in this country.

On top of that, some $400 billion in private sector investment is coming through the mining boom. This is creating opportunities for Australians—for small to medium manufacturers to participate in that investment and create opportunities. But there is a bit of a downside on this, and that is the structural adjustment we see happening to the Australian economy as a consequence. In the last two weeks Alcoa, an aluminium smelter, has indicated that because of the very high Australian dollar and a very low metal price on the London exchange their smelter at Point Henry needs to be reviewed. I can tell you right now that workers at Alcoa have a very sophisticated understanding of their industry. They are disgusted at the attempt by the Liberal Party to blame it on the Clean Energy package. It is wrong. The workers say it is wrong, the unions say it is wrong and, importantly, the company says it is wrong. They have said it at the highest level possible in Australia: through Alan Cransberg, the CEO of Alcoa in Australia.

The Australian community has become disgusted with the opposition and the approach they have taken to our economy. We have a plan to create jobs. We have a plan to give working families the opportunity to grow their incomes. Those on the other side do not stand for that at all. They stand for privilege. They stand for denying workers the same opportunities they might have experienced. We have a strong plan to support manufacturing, to support high-speed broadband and, importantly, to give people the opportunity to participate in the economy.

The efforts of Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb, as the financial spokesmen of the Liberal Party, are shameful. Tony Abbott does not stand for a strong Australian economy as we do. We are investing and giving people the opportunity to invest. But we do have some challenges and we are working with industry and with workers to address those challenges, which are coming from the high Australian dollar. We know the challenges and we are working with industry to address them.

The Liberal Party have embarrassed themselves in the past few weeks. We have a plan to grow jobs and create opportunities in Australia. High-skilled, high-wage jobs are what we stand for and we are proud of it. It is the Labor way.

See this speech in context