Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

They think it is funny because they do not support the car industry. They want to close it down. The member for Mayo nailed it when he said:

There is a role for government to assist industries to adapt to changing environments, but taxpayers funding a romantic attachment to a bygone era is not a position the Australian economy can afford or sustain.

That is what they think on that side of the House—that it is a romantic bygone era. On this side of the House we totally reject that view. When that is your starting point you are simply incapable of crafting a positive policy which will support not only the automotive sector but also the manufacturing sector in general.

We know, because of the commitments, the backflips and the flip-flops they have made, that they are in all sorts of fiscal strife. They have tied themselves in knots, and we know that they have a $70 billion black hole to fill. What is unfortunate is the length they are going to to attempt to fill that black hole. We on this side of the House have committed ourselves to supporting the automotive sector through co-investment and other strategies. However, I quote from a joint press conference the Leader of the Opposition gave in Canberra on 8 February 2011:

We are cutting $500 million worth of automotive assistance. This takes the level of automotive assistance back to the level that the Howard government thought necessary in 2007 and it removes the additional assistance to the motor industry that the Labor government provided.

There you have it. That is what they think. They think that any assistance to the automotive sector is a romantic attachment to a bygone era. That is their starting point, and they are putting that into practice by ripping $500 million worth of automotive assistance from the Automotive Transformation Scheme.

But they do not stop there, because it is not just families who are employed in the automotive industry that they want to do in the eye; it is the families employed in the steel sector as well. When asked whether they would support $300 million worth of assistance to help the transformation of our steel sector, they made it quite clear that they would not. They are quite happy to run around, whack on a hard hat and an orange vest and pose alongside some workers to get a photo opportunity, but when it comes to doing the hard yards of putting a policy in place they run the other way. We saw how they voted. They had the opportunity in this House to vote in favour of the Steel Industry Transformation Plan and they did not. What we know is that BlueScope and OneSteel are in the process of restructuring, making long-term investments and trying to re-equip and retool their plants to meet the challenges of a highly competitive industry. Unless they have certainty about government policy in this area, they simply will not invest.

So there is a challenge from those on the other side, and that is to revisit their policy of ripping $300 million out of the steel transformation plan, Because as things stand—and what is obvious to all of us on this side of the House—is that the coalition plan is to fill their $70 billion black hole with the jobs of auto industry workers and steel industry workers. They want to fill their $70 billion black hole with the jobs of auto industry workers and manufacturing industry workers, particularly those in the steel industry. We on this side of the House think that is an absolute disgrace.

Contrast that with the policy of the Labor Party, which is to give $3.4 billion worth of assistance to the Automotive Transformation Scheme, which is supporting the production of motor vehicles and engines, research and development, and plant and equipment. That is focused on innovation, because we know that to compete in a very competitive industry, in a very competitive market, we have to have a modern automotive sector with the best technology, the best research and development and the most highly skilled workforce.

It is not just the automotive industry that we are helping transform. As I said, there is $300 million of assistance to the steel industry for its Steel Transformation Plan. We on this side of the House think that a capacity to manufacture steel, to retain that heavy manufacturing capacity, is critical to our national economy and our national interests. That is why on this side of the House we are investing in clean technology for the future. I was very pleased that the Minister for Climate Change and Industry was able to announce today the first draft of funds available through the Clean Technology Investment Program. We know this will be very well subscribed—we heard today that there are over 3,000 expressions of interest for funds under that program. There is $1 billion to assist manufacturing improve energy efficiency and pollution.

These are the policy settings of a government which manages the economy in the interests of the manufacturing sector and in the interests of working families. We are investing in infrastructure, including filling the $100 billion deficit in infrastructure investment that we inherited. This deficit occurred when the economy was raining gold bars, yet they come into this place and champion the fact that they were able to deliver surplus after surplus—as our rail network was falling to bits, as our ports were being clogged and as our hospitals were becoming a national disgrace. Suburb after suburb after suburb, throughout Australia, could not get access to the essential technology of the future, and that is fast, reliable, high-speed broadband. We are reversing that, and we are doing that while managing the economy in the interests of working families. If you are going to manage the economy in the interests of working families, particularly those who are mortgage holders, you have to adopt policy settings which are keeping interest rates low.

Those on the other side of the House like to talk about interest rates but one thing they will not tell you is that interest rates are lower today than they were when we took office in November 2007. In fact, they would have to increase 10 times to reach the level they were when we took office. We are adopting policy settings which are keeping interest rates low, and unemployment is low. We are very proud of the fact that 700,000 jobs have been created since we took office. We are proud of our job creation record because on this side of the House that is what it is all about. We come here week after week to craft policies and advocate programs which are in the interests of ordinary working people, which are supporting the manufacturing sector, and we stare across the chamber at those on the other side of the table who have this new romantic attachment to the manufacturing sector but when you look at their policy cupboard it is bare. All they want is to fill their $70 billion black hole with the jobs of automotive industry workers. (Time expired)

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