Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

The motion put forward by the member for Bennelong is commendable, but he is very short-sighted in the approach he has taken in addressing the issues facing A Future Made in Australia. Let's go through them. It's a shame he's leaving the chamber. If you're going to put one of these motions, you really should stay to listen to others and to proffer arguments to help the speakers who will follow you. Anyway, he will probably learn in relation to that.

When Labor were last in office, they promised $6.2 billion to keep car manufacturing in Australia, claiming it would leverage $16 billion in investment and secure jobs throughout the 2020s. But what did they deliver? The facts show that 20,500 jobs in motor vehicle and component manufacturing were lost under Labor. At major manufacturers, vehicle production fell by more than 36 per cent between 2007 and 2012—Labor years. Conveniently lost on Labor is that Mitsubishi and Ford announced they would leave the Australian market on Labor's watch. They conveniently forget or overlook that. Across Labor's last term in office, 6,800 manufacturing businesses closed their doors, and more than 37,300 manufacturing jobs were lost in their last year in office alone.

We see now, under a Labor government, record numbers of small businesses going to the wall—going bankrupt. They can't keep the door open. This is such a shame, and there are a number of factors in that, not least of which is the higher power prices. They just can't seem to pay the bills, and why would they be able to pay the bills when Labor, having promised prior to the May 2022 election that they would cut power prices, have done the complete opposite when it comes to ensuring lower power prices for households, for small businesses and, indeed, for manufacturing?

Of course, when we talk about 'made in Australia' on this WA Day, we look at Labor's record with Western Australia. Their failures on borders and migration mean that that it's harder to buy a house and less safe to walk the streets in WA. But worse than that in one sense is that they are shutting down our live sheep export industry. When introducing the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024, the member for Ballarat, a regional member, said this:

We all know Australians love their lamb, and now the rest of the world is catching on with demand for lamb and mutton products continuing to grow.

If that's the case, why would you shut down an industry which is made right here in Australia, with sheep produced right here in Australia, and why would the Treasurer go to the dispatch box, in delivering his third budget, and pay $107 million to Australian farmers to stop farming? That's what he's doing: he's paying $107 million to stop sheep farmers in Western Australia from doing what they are good at—what they are the world's best at. Our Australian farmers—make no mistake—are the best in the world. But here we have a Labor government saying that it's going to protect Australian industries, preserve Australian jobs and grow industry and, at the same time, the budget puts in $107 million to shut down an industry which provides world's best practice.

The member for Bennelong talked about critical minerals. I'm not quite sure how many critical minerals there are in the seat of Bennelong, but I have plenty of critical minerals in my electorate of Riverina, particularly around Forbes. Northparkes mine does a great job, as does Lake Cowal mining operations. But we have seen a government which doesn't mind taking the benefits and talking about how they're getting the budget back into surplus when, at the same time, they are shutting down mining operations throughout regional Australia—shutting down the very industries which are helping to keep our balance of payments and export opportunities alive and well and helping make sure their budget stays in balance.

It is so incongruous when on one hand they're taking and, on the other hand, they are absolutely demonising the industries and therefore the workers in those industries, who are doing their very best and have done for many, many years to keep the nation's lights on. Shame on Labor for that. Shame on Labor for pretending to care about a future made in Australia, when exactly the opposite is the case.

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