Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are getting more of it from the learned colleague opposite. The blame game is not going to help in these situations. We have to be looking at what we are going to do in the future to grow the economy, to grow jobs and to make sure that this country has a bright future. That is what this government has been doing since it came to office. We have decided to draw a line in the sand to say the last six years have not worked; that is why we were in this situation and that is why manufacturing is suffering in this country. What we want to do for manufacturing workers—and we do not care whether they are unionised or not—is give them jobs, sustainable jobs which they can have into the future, which are not dependent on the government providing money and more money and more money to ensure that those jobs continue.

There comes a time when government, like business, has to live within its means and that is what this government will do. We took a commitment to the election that we would get the budget mess that we inherited under control, that we would get debt under control. That is what we are going to do and we are going to do it by growing the economy, by growing new jobs.

It was fantastic to see the Prime Minister's response to what happened yesterday. He understands as everyone does on this side the disappointment, the dismay for those workers whose jobs are going to come to an end. But he also knows that he has to work cooperatively with the Victorian and South Australian state governments to ensure that those workers at Holden and Toyota and the rest of the workers in that state have a future. We are providing much needed infrastructure funds to make sure that those economies grow and that jobs will be provided. And it will be successful, especially if it comes along with the Labor Party getting out of the way and allowing us to abolish the carbon tax. It will be successful if they get out of the way and allow us to get rid of the mining tax. It will be successful if they get out of the way and allow us to get the budget back into a decent state. The hypocrisy of those promised cuts that they delivered in government, which they are now opposing, knows no bounds. That is the type of thing which will hold this country back.

We know that we have to grow the economy. We have said that creating jobs will be a first point of call when it comes to this government. The Prime Minister spent a good three years in opposition going around talking to industry, talking to workers, talking to businesses to find out what they need to make sure the economy continued to grow so that we could provide jobs for the families of Australia, and that is what we are hell-bent on doing. We will do it by encouraging industries which have been hit by this manufacturing decline, by this structural decline into those areas. We will ensure that the policies are there so the investment goes into those areas to create and developed new industries. We will work cooperatively both at the federal and state level to ensure that that happens. (Time expired)

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