Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The year 2014 is the year that Tony Abbott wants us to forget. Unfortunately, this is the year which Australians will remember for the rest of their lives. The proposition which I advance today as a matter of public importance is that this is not what the Prime Minister says is a year of achievement, laughable as that is; this has been a year of underachievement from a government which has let down the Australian people. Every government gets elected with the goodwill of the Australian people, but no government has burnt its bridges so quickly. When we think back to 12 months ago, the Treasurer had goaded Holden into going, losing thousands of jobs, and now we find out it was so he could clear the decks for a free trade agreement. But the list of job losses in this country is far longer than just Holden: Rio at Gove; Toyota; Alcoa; Forge in Western Australia; thousands of more jobs in small businesses and manufacturing; and defence construction. The renewable energy industry is at risk. When the Australian people were beginning to worry at the start of this year about the issue of jobs, sadly confirmed in the last few days by the national accounts figures and unemployment numbers, we discovered that in March this year the Prime Minister's plan for jobs was to come up with the idea of knights and dames. It has been a most extraordinary year.

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