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

And the member for Cunningham reminds me: probably the reason why the member for Hughes, who has employees within his electorate who work at BlueScope, never mentioned it in a debate around the future of manufacturing and the future of Australian jobs is because when he had the opportunity to come into this House and cast a vote in support of local manufacturing jobs, he voted against it. He had the opportunity to put his hand in the air, to stand with those on the government side of the House and say, 'We vote for BlueScope, we vote for the Steel Transformation Plan, we vote for keeping the steelworks open in the Illawarra,' but he declined to do so. He voted against it, and that should be known. It is a matter to his eternal shame in this place.

It is not just that plan. The $5.4 billion New Car Plan is providing the automotive manufacturing sector the certainty it needs to attract long-term investment to 2020. I never heard mention of that in any of the earlier speeches either, which is a tragedy because we have seen in recent days the difficulties that that sector is going through in Australia. Of particular importance is the announcement by Ford that it intends to close down its domestic production facilities in Victoria by 2016. Well, that story will be repeated in two other car production plants—in both Toyota and in Holden—if the coalition wins at the September election because their policy is to halve the amount of assistance and co-investment that the government puts into the car industry right from the get-go.

It is something the Leader of the Opposition does not tell the manufacturing industry workers when he dons a hardhat and a yellow vest and does doorstops in manufacturing shops around the country. He keeps it secret from them, the fact they voted against the steel industry transformation plan. He keeps it secret from them that the coalition wants to rip millions of dollars' worth of assistance for research and development out of the car industry. And there is no secret there are no other policies in the coalition policy drawer when it comes to manufacturing.

The $1.2 billion Clean Technology Program is critical to helping businesses transform the way they do their work, ensuring they can invest in clean energy processes, reduce their electricity bills and reduce their power usage as well. It is $1.2 billion for a co-investment program—also on the chop if the coalition wins. There are businesses around the country that are developing new programs, that are putting in bids for grants right now that must be wondering about the uncertainty that will be visited upon them if there is a change of policy following a change of government.

There is a lot in the package. It is not, as previous speakers have attempted to characterise this—laughable in their simplicity—a means of just placing somebody inside a mining company. And if that was the only thing that was contained in the policy, what a difference that would make. What a difference that would make to ensure that local manufacturers and local businesses got a fair shake when it came to tendering for these projects, multi-billion dollar projects. Local businesses get a feed out of some this work that is going on; it will keep those businesses open. If that was all it was, that would be good enough. But we are going far beyond that in this far-reaching project.

I would ask those on the other side of the House to rethink their plan to say no, to rethink their plan to reject this bill. There is a lot in it for workers in my electorate. There is a lot in it for businesses around the country. And there is a lot in it for manufacturing around the country. For those reasons, I commend the bill to the House.

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