Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise in support of this particular motion, and I do so because businesses that employ many in the local community and that contribute so much depend on contracts such as these. But, first of all, I want to pay tribute to the men and women in the Defence Force who protect our country. We all know that, if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have the great country that we have today.

We have a safe, secure and prosperous country, so it only makes sense that we would also want a safe, secure and prosperous manufacturing sector in Australia. Local businesses create jobs, invest in industries et cetera; they're an investment and a tax base for reinvestment in things like infrastructure, schools, hospitals, ports, rail and roads. But what has been going on in this place is that we've got a government that's trying to take a victory lap while it makes some terrible decisions that send jobs overseas. And it's especially hard to listen to people opposite talk about their support for local jobs and the Defence Force when this government makes procurement decisions that send jobs overseas.

I've got a great example of this. In 2014, a great company in my electorate of Hindmarsh, Rossi Boots, lost its bid to provide boots to the ADF. We're talking about a local, family-owned company that provided boots to our World War I soldiers. They've been around for generations, and for a long time they have done the right thing by this nation. They could move offshore to places like Fiji, China or Thailand, but they don't because they've got a commitment to South Australia. They know they could cut their costs if they went overseas, but they don't because they are absolutely committed to creating more jobs and creating great products for our nation. It's very sad when the government doesn't give back that same respect that they get from small companies and businesses. This is a company that produces wonderful boots. They lost the contract to someone in Indonesia who won that government Defence contract and was provided the tender, which is very sad when you've got a great, iconic company like Rossi Boots that employs people here in Australia in South Australia that missed out.

What governments need to look at are the benefits of keeping businesses in Australia. We need governments to calculate the taxes and revenue benefits of employing local people, with those wages that those people earn being reinvested back in the community as part of the procurement process. We don't look at those things, sadly and unfortunately. If we did, of course, we wouldn't have walked away from GM-H. We know that many nations across the world that have assembly lines in car manufacturing subsidise that industry. They do so because it value adds to the economy. They do so because they know, for every job, there's another 40 in manufacturing that are produced. As I said, walking away from GM-H was an absolute disgrace. South Australians remember it. We should have done more as the government in this place to ensure it continued. We're still feeling the impact of that decision.

You can imagine what a benefit having a bootmaker in my electorate win the Defence contract would have been to South Australia. Rossi Boots weren't looking for a handout; they were after a level playing field. That's all they wanted—a level playing field. You've got a great family company founded by Arthur Rossiter, who started the company in his backyard tin shed, and taken over by the late Dean Rossiter. They supplied boots to the Australian Army during World War I and supplied 110,000 pairs of boots to soldiers in World War II, but they didn't even get a level playing field to compete with a product produced overseas. Our top tax dollars are at work stimulating overseas economies.

When I look at the motion before the chamber today, after seeing firsthand what happened to a local business in my electorate, the government shouldn't really be congratulating itself; it should be taking a look in the mirror. We need to do all that we can to create jobs, and one of the ways of doing that is by ensuring that we give our local companies a level playing field in procurement so they can, basically, win contracts and employ local people who pay taxes here and spend their money here in this economy. The hard work that has been put into the creation of this small company, Rossi Boots, and their commitment to South Australia is something that is exemplary, and the least we can do is give them an even playing field to compete on and win a Defence contract.

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