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

Over the last week and a half, and I suppose the last year, what we have seen is a government which is suffering from a blue-collar revolt. We have seen a government that has completely forgotten about Tony's tradies, about blue-collar workers and about working-class communities. It has completely forgotten about the nation's vital industries, and we now find a government that is on the ropes. It has a jobs embassy out the front of Parliament House, where MUA members from the MV Portlandand I share their cause with them. They were dragged off the ship in the middle of the night by security guards—off their place of work—so that their work would go elsewhere. It is a disgraceful and disgusting reflection of this government's attitude to maritime workers and seafarers.

We see the same thing going on at the Whyalla Steelworks. We see the same contempt and the same attitudes at work there from this government. We had the member for Sturt bragging that he had saved Whyalla—that is what he told the Adelaide media last Wednesday night. But there was a delegation of Whyalla steelworkers in the House today, pleading for the government to do the right thing on procurement, contracts, antidumping and co-investment. They were led by Mr Eddie Hughes, the state member for Whyalla, Steve McMillan from the AMWU along with Andrew Mayne, who is a MWU delegate at the Whyalla Steelworks; Scott Martin from the Australian Workers Union and Stewart Munro, who is the AWU delegate at that site; Greg Warner, who is a CFMEU official, and Brad Prince, who is a CFMEU delegate at the steelworks; Bill Mitropoulis from my own union, the CEPU and Leigh Fewster, who is an electrician and delegate at the steelworks.

We know that all of those workers did not come to Canberra because they love the place—they like making steel in the steel city—but they came here because they want to send this government a message about supporting blue-collar workers and blue-collar communities. It is about time the government listened; it is about time the government fulfilled its obligations as part of the member for Sturt's rhetoric to back in these blue-collar workers.

We have also had another ship building delegation, led by Glenn Thompson, an indefatigable champion for shipbuilding in this country and the AMWU's national secretary in this area. We had David French, John Primrose, David Powles, David Coulchard, Glen Dallimore, Ian Tanner, Ori Gasparini, Rosco Williamson and Matthew Primo all here in the building backing in Australian shipbuilders, their skills and their capacities to do their job of building ships in this country. They are second to none in this country and around the world in their dedication to their work and in the skills they apply to that work. They should not be badmouthed by this government, which said that they could not build a canoe. They should not be badmouthed by the current Minister for Defence, who says that we do not have the capacity in this country to build ships. We do.

What has happened is that this government has been exposed by, of all people, the Spanish press—

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