Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to the Leader of the Opposition's question, I have been concerned, as have the members for Corangamite and Corio, about the circumstances at Alcoa. We have also been advised by the company of those circumstances, which the Leader of the Opposition has come into the Parliament and misrepresented today. The circumstances of Alcoa which have been made available to the government include pressure on Alcoa because of international prices and because of the age of some of its capital stock. We have worked with Alcoa because we believe these jobs are precious. We believe the jobs of Australian workers are precious, and that is why when jobs are being threatened in our economy—for example, by the global financial crisis—we have always worked to protect jobs. We have taken that same ethos about understanding how important jobs are to working people to circumstances at Alcoa and we are working with the company because we want to see a continuation of the company and a continuation of those jobs.

The Leader of the Opposition, of course, is not at all concerned about those jobs; the only thing that will ever worry him is what is the best way of distorting this issue, to make it about his fear campaign. This is not about the Leader of the Opposition's fear campaign; this is about a different set of circumstances. He owes it to the workers there to be honest about it. He owes it to that region of Victoria to be honest about it. He owes it to the people of Australia to be honest about it.

For us on this side of the parliament, jobs will always be something we work to protect. On that side of the parliament, any threat to jobs is just an excuse to try and politically profit as part of their destructive and aggressive negativity. We will work to help working people; they will keep being negative about working people and their lifetime prospects, as we have seen the Leader of the Opposition be already today.

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