Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the 400 workers who have lost their jobs at Albury based Drivetrain Systems International as well as the company’s 300 suppliers and its locally developed hybrid transmissions left in danger of being sold overseas. Will the Prime Minister live up to his commitment to support the Australian car industry by directing money from the Green Car Innovation Fund to protect the 400 Australian  workers and their families?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. Any Australian worker who loses their job as a consequence of the current global economic recession—and more generally—is of direct concern to everyone who sits on this side of the House and, I assume, honourable member’s opposite as well. The practical challenge we face is how to deal with each concentration of unemployment—for example, that to which the honourable member refers—and at the same time to provide underpinning support for the economy as a whole.

On support for the economy as a whole, I have outlined to the House before, our $42 billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan. Secondly, what I have also outlined to the House on previous occasions is our $4.8 billion nation-building plan announced last year, which focused on infrastructure. Thirdly, there is the Economic Security Strategy we released last October, with payments coming out in December. Each of those measures, including in the automobile sector—these levels of support to consumption in the economy—assist overall performance in the retail sector of the economy.

But, on top of that, at the end of last year the government—and from memory it was in September-October—released the $6.1 billion New Car Plan for a Greener Future. As a consequence of that plan, which we negotiated at length with the principal representative of the automobile industry in Australia and their parents abroad, we put in place the most secure investment environment possible for the automobile industry—and, as a consequence, the suppliers to that industry—going out to the year 2020. Honourable members will know the state of the auto industry around the world. The automobile industry in the United States is collapsing. The automobile industry in many parts of Europe is going through the same experience. We have also seen recent reports about the difficulties Toyota and others are experiencing within Japan. This is the reality—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Prime Minister was asked a specific question about what action he would take about 400 jobs in Albury. He is not being relevant to that specific question, and I would ask you to draw him back to it.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Sturt will resume his seat. The Prime Minister is responding to the question.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Abbott interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Warringah is warned!

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In response to the state of the auto industry and the auto supplies industry, wherever they are located across the country, the fact is that it is a consequence of what is happening in private credit markets. We are acting to stabilise those private credit markets, because they in turn affect the ability of consumers to buy and to access finance. On that particular note, I would draw the House’s attention to a further measure taken by the government to assist with the motor vehicle financing industry—problems brought about by the withdrawal of up to 40 per cent from the market as a consequence of the withdrawal back to the United States of various auto finance firms. Again those opposite would argue, by their interjections: do nothing about the withdrawal of those historical participants in the auto finance industry. This government is prepared to have a go, to step up to the plate and to try, to the extent possible, to fill the gap left by the withdrawal of private participants within that sector of the finance industry. That measure, plus a $6.1 billion new car plan to provide certainty out to 2020 and, on top of that, the underpinning measures contained in the Nation Building and Jobs Plan in its various stages since the end of last year: that is what we have done. Each step of the way, without virtual exception, we have been attacked by those opposite.

I note the look of glee on the face of the new Manager of Opposition Business as he and so many of his colleagues seem to take great political delight in the challenge of unemployment which now descends on the Australian economy as a consequence of the global economic crisis. We are putting forward solutions. You are simply contenting yourselves with politically opportunistic criticism.