Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

This suspension motion needs to be passed so that we have an opportunity to debate the censure of the Prime Minister of this country. The reason we need to debate the censure of this Prime Minister is that on his watch, yesterday, we saw an iconic company decide to leave our shores for good. Of course, that comes off the back of the decision by Holden in December to do exactly that. The last time we were sitting here, we watched the spectacle of the Treasurer of this country goading Holden to leave this country, and they did. Other than creating terrible circumstances for every Holden worker in Australia, that created a situation where it was believed that this government had no appetite for the car industry. That is what we saw. Unfortunately, it was quite inevitable, given the government's positioning, rhetoric and lack of support for the car industry, that Toyota would decide to leave this country, as they did, tragically, yesterday.

We have seen so many companies decide to leave or to close down as a result of the election of this government. We should not be that surprised. Since September we have seen a net loss of 54,000 full-time jobs in in this country. Before the election, the Prime Minister promised there would be one million jobs in five years. We should be heading towards 100,000 jobs in the first six months of this term. We are not heading towards 100,000 jobs in the first six months of this term; we are already 54,000 full-time jobs down. That is because this government has no regard for companies or for workers in this country. Instead, it has an ideological motive to go after its political opponents.

Yesterday, when the company was making an announcement, the Prime Minister was making an entirely different announcement. He announced a political stunt to effectively go after the people he does not like. If he was fair dinkum about engaging in criminal matters, he would refer those matters to the police and provide the resources to the police and the Australian Crime Commission. Instead, the Prime Minister was out yesterday at a doorstop, announcing what is a political stunt, a political exercise, and a highly expensive use of taxpayers' money. At the same time, Toyota was making the announcement that this company was leaving this country for good.

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