Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I move as an amendment to the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition:

That all words after “That” be omitted and the following words be substituted: “this House calls on all Members to support policies that reduce taxation, cut red tape and regulation, improve productivity and create stable and consistent Government that encourages growth and investment.

Before I turn to the elements of the amendment, there are two gaping holes in the opposition's case against the government today. The first of those gaping holes is their own record on jobs in the manufacturing sector and jobs in general over the last six years. The second gaping hole is the truth about why General Motors in Detroit made this announcement today. I will get to both.

Fancy being lectured about job losses by the Leader of the Opposition, who was part of a government that secretly planned to sack 14,500 public servants. They had that planned before the election and they were going to reveal it after the election. It was not like the Leader of the Opposition just signed up to a secret arrangement to sack 14,500 workers; many more workers than whose jobs are at risk over the next four years. These 14,500 job losses were going to occur within weeks and months of the election. He went to the Commonwealth Public Sector Union conference and said to members:

… we believe that the necessary savings should not impact unduly on the overall number of APS jobs

On 16 August 2013, the day he assured the people he was speaking to that their jobs were safe, he accused the coalition of planning to cut to the bone while he knew all along that his government, if re-elected, was going to sack 14,500 workers. It is difficult to be lectured by the opposition about manufacturing jobs when we know that under them, in the 5½ years to August 2013, 160,000 manufacturing jobs were lost. Just over one in seven manufacturing jobs were lost under Labor. In fact, a manufacturing job was lost every 19 minutes under the Labor Party. That is the fact. Under the 11½ years of the previous coalition government, jobs in the manufacturing sector remained relatively stable.

Mr Stephen Jones interjecting—

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