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

I understand the difficulties the minister has in this debate because, clearly, what he has sought to do has not been supported by any of his colleagues. I do not think it is reasonable for the opposition to be lectured to by the government on scaremongering workers. In the last three years the then opposition leader, the now Prime Minister, spent his entire time scaring workers with false claims about an industrial Armageddon as a result of policies of the previous government, none of which came true. The other thing I would note is that the Prime Minister, when he was in opposition, spent his entire time using blue-collar workers as a backdrop to media conferences. There he was, with his vest and his hardhat, standing with journos in front of him and workers behind him as he went on about his scare campaign. But he is nowhere to be seen now in the workplaces which are threatened by a number of things, not least of all by government policy or government inaction. So it is completely ludicrous for the minister to assert that somehow we are raising the spectre of concern when we are seeing thousands of jobs leave our shores against what we witnessed when the Prime Minister was opposition leader.

The other thing to note most importantly in this debate about why we should support the car industry is the comment made by the minister when he said we were providing too much support for the car industry. To make some comparisons: we are one of only 13 countries building cars from beginning to end and that includes developed nations. We spend $17.40 per capita of taxpayers' money in this country, compared with Germany which spends $90 per capita, and the United States which spends $264 per capita. So it is clear that whatever support we have provided, which 250,000 jobs ultimately rely upon, it is far less per capita than many other nations. For the government to pretend otherwise means they want to fly in the face of facts.

What we have seen this week is a tragedy for, firstly, the Toyota workers who face an uncertain future, the 170 component companies which now have a very uncertain future and all their employees, and then when those companies hit the wall the devastating and rippling effects which will go beyond the automotive sector. We need to hear the Prime Minister not blaming the workers or blaming unions but providing a jobs plan for the future. Today we heard the Prime Minister in question time and we heard the minister in this debate but they had no plan about what they will do to provide support for workers who will lose their jobs very shortly. We have heard no plan whatsoever about emerging technologies and the so-called new economy and what they will do to create the environment for workers to be sufficiently capable to transition into that area—no plan whatsoever.

It is quite concerning that the member for Murray is not on the speakers' list in this debate. The member for Murray deserves to speak in this debate. She should be given the opportunity by the government whip to speak so that she can articulate on behalf of the workers and SPC and, indeed, the community of Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley what they know about the lack of government support for that company. We accept that the government cannot save every job—we understand that. We are not pretending that the government can protect every job but they need to be doing everything they can to do just that. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister, when he suggested that SPC workers were getting certain conditions of employment, was found to be completely and utterly wrong. The cabinet decision was predicated on a lie. The member for Murray deserves to speak in this debate along with many members on this side who have some terrible stories to tell about their constituents who will lose jobs as a result of government inaction which has occurred on their watch. (Time expired)

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