Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This is terrible news for families of Australians. This is terrible news. First of all, long before we get to the economic cost of this, let us talk about people. Let us not talk about politics. Can anyone opposite put themselves in the shoes of 2½ thousand people called into canteens yesterday at 4.30 and five o'clock to be told, 'No matter what you have done and how well you have done it, there is no more job for you.'? Can anyone opposite have sufficient empathy to imagine the conversations which happened around the dinner table that night as the kids ask the parents: 'I have just seen Mum or Dad's work on TV. What does this all mean?'? Has anyone got the empathy to understand that not only are there the direct jobs at Toyota but there are tens of thousands of people in small businesses making auto components all around Australia? Has anyone got the empathy to understand the 55-year-old process worker on an assembly line, who has been a productive worker, who can work in a team, who is told that. 'Yes, there will be another job for you.'?

The government in the past has said they can go uranium mining. The government in the past has said, 'You have got three years of a job and we will sort things out in between now and then.' Yet in question time we asked them for a plan, because after all the government says everyone knows the car industry has been going for ever. Well if the car industry has been going forever, where is your plan? There is no plan.

When we look at the blow beyond the sad news that goes to the individuals who are caught up in this turmoil beyond their control, we look at it and we see that again the government says, 'Oh, well, we've seen a reduction by a quarter in the size of the automotive industry.' Well let me tell you opposite: in your five months you have taken the other three-quarters of the car industry and you have wrecked it. When we talk about who is actually affected, it is not just people working on an assembly line at Fishermans Bend or in Altona. There are 7,000 people in Queensland who make auto components. There are 7,000 in Sydney who make auto components. Let me put this on record: this North Sydney based government does not understand manufacturing in the southern states of Australia. They have never seen a Victorian or South Australian job they would ever fight for other than their own marginal seat MPs.

Let us look at this marvellous deal which the government has done for the Australian taxpayer, saying, 'Well, we are not going to give any more subsidy here because we are too smart.' We understand that this is not good business. How much in tax revenue will disappear when these people do not have a job and Toyota leaves? What will be the cost of the retraining bill to retrain tens of thousands of people? How much extra in Centrelink payments will there be because those people opposite have never seen an Australian job worth fighting for? What is going to be the implications for people who do not have a job and have the misery of unemployment and who cannot accumulate superannuation? Will it be a further challenge in terms of the age pension? What about the thousands of small businesses who supply products in the automotive sector? They have been abandoned by those opposite. In 66 years in Australia, under Fraser, under Howard, under Menzies—at least we had a car industry, but not under Prime Minister Abbott. Toyota, for every dollar of government assistance they get, they invest $20. But these people opposite are so clever. They are so clever. They are so adult-like in the way they run the government. They have said to Toyota, 'Rather than give you our one dollar rather than give you a dollar from us we will get rid of the $20 you give us.' That is not mathematics. These people are creating a jobs deficit in this country that will take years and years to get out of.

Then we heard the argument that nothing was going to happen. These people got into office—and they wanted the white cars, the desks and to give lectures to half of Australia as they divide them—but they did not want to work hard to save jobs in Australia.

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