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

The current Prime Minister, as the Shadow Treasurer reminds me. We know when Mr Turnbull, the Prime Minister, was asked what he thought about this industry, he said, 'Oh well, they have to work on their productivity.' That is what he said to workers at the time. These are the workers who carved $20 million in costs out of enterprise bargaining agreements and other work practices. They were doing their bit to secure a billion dollars worth of assistance. They were doing their bit to keep these high-wage, high-skilled jobs in the country. What was the attitude of the Prime Minister to these workers? It was not only one of ignoring them—it's galling that this government wants to pretend that this industry is not closing, that it doesn't even exist—but that the Prime Minister went kayaking on Friday. He went kayaking in some social media stunt. He went down and took a tram somewhere. This is what is supposed to be industrial policy in this country? Rather than defending high-skill, high-wage jobs, the government—which is full of guilty people—have put this industry to the sword and have done so much damage, as they have done in so many other areas, with anaemic wage growth, entry level jobs basically being carved out of the system and attack after attack on the unemployed. What are they doing for jobs in this country? They are closing the one big industry in South Australia—50,000 jobs. This will reverberate across the country—make absolutely no mistake about it.

What would a Prime Minister do if this happened on their watch? Normally, when there are tough conditions, when there are economic winds buffeting, a Prime Minister would show up. Prime Minister Rudd showed up. He showed up at Holden. Gillard—she showed up. But what has Turnbull done? What we just heard from the minister at the table and what we heard in question time was bragging about jobs growth.

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