Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Abbott government spent the Christmas break floating a work-for-the-dole scheme and blaming workers at SPC Ardmona for the situation facing their company. In this perfect storm for Australian manufacturing, Captain Abbott has been more concerned with abandoning ship, blaming the crew and punching holes in the lifeboats than steering the ship to safety. His Treasurer, in the weeks leading up to Toyota's crucial decision, lectured Australian workers on the age of personal responsibility. In this age of personal responsibility, why is it okay to support chocolate jobs at Cadbury but not car jobs at Toyota? It sounds more like an age of hypocrisy to me.

The loss of Toyota to Melbourne's west is devastating for not only the 2,500 Toyota workers but also the hundreds of manufacturers of component parts who are reliant on Toyota's business. We need a government with a bigger vision for these workers than picking up rubbish at the Hosken Reserve for less than minimum wage on a work-for-the-dole scheme across the road from an empty Toyota Altona plant. As Robert Kennedy once said, 'The answer to the welfare crisis is work, jobs, self-sufficiency and family integrity.' We need decent employment to fully engage society—the kind of employment that lets a man say, 'I helped to build this country.' We have seen overseas the consequences of letting the ship sink. We have seen the consequences of mass unemployment. We only need to look to the United States—where the impact of the global financial crisis has been felt most keenly by blue-collar workers—to understand that reality. In the US, more than 10 per cent of workers in blue-collar industries lost their jobs between August 2007 and August 2009.

The loss of manufacturing jobs has a significant emotional toll. The stress of unemployment has a physical impact. The life expectancy of laid-off middle-aged workers decreases by one to one and a half years. Mass unemployment affects the whole community—including, most heartbreakingly, the children of laid-off workers. A child whose parent loses their job is 15 per cent more likely to repeat a grade at school and, in time, will have lower home ownership rates and higher divorce rates. This is the future that confronts Melbourne's west under the Abbott government.

With the jobs of 1,400 workers at the Williamstown shipyards also on the line, almost 4,000 families in Melbourne's west are confronting the fear of sudden unemployment. The alternative to this sudden unemployment is to act to protect these workers and communities who will be hit hardest by this perfect storm.

Labor acted to protect jobs during the global financial crisis, and we acted to protect the auto industry through this period of global turmoil through the ATS. But it was not just Labor who supported manufacturing workers with these assistance schemes. Under John Howard, manufacturing workers were protected with the automotive industry assistance package. In 2002, John Howard's industry minister, Ian Macfarlane, worked with John Brumby, the then Treasurer of Victoria, to put aside politics and ensure that auto workers had the support they needed in trying times. Why was it good enough for John Howard to support Australian auto manufacturing jobs in 2002 but it is not good enough for Tony Abbott to do so today? Why would John Howard let Ian Macfarlane do his job and protect Australian jobs in 2002 but Tony Abbott will not let him do so in 2014? It is because the Liberal Party has been taken over in the past 10 years by economic extremists who are out of touch with what the Australian public want their government to do. Tony Abbott promised a million new jobs for Australians. We have not seen one in my electorate, and it is time for this betrayal to be held to account.

See this speech in context