Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We woke up today to these dreadful headlines. The one that tells the story is in The Age: 'Road to recession'. These are not headlines that we have seen in Australia despite all of the challenges that we faced during the global financial crisis. We never had headlines like that before because in the past we had a government committed to jobs and committed to growth. But the people of Elizabeth in my electorate, of Shepparton in the electorate of Murray, in Nhulunbuy and in Altona know what the Abbott government is all about. These are communities that are shattered by the actions and the inaction of this government. What do we get from those opposite while these communities are reeling? The member for Gellibrand articulated it and the member for Solomon articulated it.

We do not see the member for Murray. We know she must be the most confused member of parliament because the 'lines in the sand' and the 'end of the age of entitlement' were not supposed to apply to rural communities. They were not supposed to apply to bean farmers in Queensland and Tasmania. They were not supposed to apply to the conservatives' heartland. She must be very confused because the government could not find $25 million for Shepparton. That is what it would have taken to save 500 manufacturing jobs in that electorate. That is what it would have taken to save a whole rural economic ecosystem with blockies and farmers. They could not find $25 million, yet they can find $16 million for Cadburys because apparently that is to promote tourism. They can find $3.5 million for Huon Aquaculture—probably a very good venture but nobody has ever heard of it. I do not know how many people it employs. Those opposite were happy to spend $100 million on a witch-hunt. They were happy to spend $20 million on a pilot scheme for marriage counselling. That was on the front page of the Daily Telegrapha bit of a thought bubble, but we get used to that. I believe one of the members in the party room raised the arrogance of government ministers floating things in the press.

You can understand why the member for Murray is confused, why she is angry, why she is lashing out at the Prime Minister and calling him a liar. We now have the spectacle of this government, despite telling us that they have ended the age of entitlement, reinserting an FBT tax concession which will now only benefit foreign car manufacturers and foreign car workers. So we have got $1.8 billion in Australian taxpayers' money going to German, Chinese, British and US auto workers. That is the end of the age of entitlement. You can understand the member for Murray being a touch confused. You can understand Australians being a touch confused.

We see factory workers, farmers, small businesses, all these communities, suffering from this government's actions. I can tell you other people who are suffering from the government's actions. There is a company called Carr Components in the Adelaide suburb of Netley, in the seat of Hindmarsh. Bill Sardelis was quoted in the Fin Review today under the headline 'Shocked parts makers out of options':

Mr Sardelis said he was angry at policymakers. "In the end, they didn't want an industry and they've got what they wanted."

The worst thing about this government is that there are all these drones on the backbench who claim that they are such tough economic warriors but then they always seek to blame someone else. It is always someone else's fault. It is the unions' fault. It is the workers' fault. It is the multinationals' fault. It is always someone else's fault, because they do not really have the courage of their convictions. They are not willing to don the fluoro just one more time, to go down to Altona or Elizabeth or Shepparton. We do not see them going down there. Then they talk about this $100 million fund, which was supposed to be just about South Australia but apparently is now being stretched right across the country to retrain workers in many, many different communities. We do not see a plan. We do not see any fairness out of this government. We are on the road to recession. (Time expired)

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