Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

No, it won't. The member for Riverina goes straight to the top of the class because, if you ask a question, he has got the answer—straight ahead—which I must say is a little bit different to the Prime Minister today in question time. Five times there was a very simple question, and he was evasive and slippery and wouldn't answer anything like what the question had asked of him. But the member for Riverina knows—straight question, straight answer. Affordable and reliable energy: no, this bill does not help in that.

This is the biggest issue that manufacturing is facing right across this country at the moment, and I say to those opposite: please, for the sake of the future of our nation, fix the energy mess that you are creating. If it keeps going like it is, then, sadly, we are going to see manufacturing businesses disappear out of this country at a rate we've never seen. You have to fix this. That's why you should just take this bill out of here and say: 'We've got it all wrong. It doesn't incentivise in the right places. It doesn't fix the issues that need fixing. Instead, it has got all its priorities wrong.' Start again and go back to the drawing board.

What else does the manufacturing sector in this country need at the moment? It needs flexible workplaces, yet what is this government delivering? It's delivering more and more of the same: regulation upon regulation, which makes it harder for manufacturing businesses right across this nation to employ people. It makes it harder for them to adapt. It makes it harder for them to compete. Once again, we see from those opposite, those on the government benches, that they have no idea about what it requires to run a business.

I'll tell you what can happen now and what can happen quite readily which couldn't happen before. If you're running a manufacturing business, guess who can walk in the front door now?

See this speech in context