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

It was a great pleasure to hear the member for Makin talking about speedway racing, particularly out in my electorate at Virginia. I have many fond memories of going there in my youth. I always behaved myself! I have very fond memories indeed of going out there. That is why with some pleasure I rise to also talk about a bit of good news in relation to cars in my electorate. On page 13 of the Advertiser today there is a headline ‘Holden Cruzes back into second shift’ and ‘Workers at Elizabeth plant rewarded for their patience’. The article basically tells the story that Holden’s second shift, its afternoon shift, is now back in operation.

Since May 2009, because of the impact of the global financial crisis, the afternoon shift was cut, and that resulted in a great deal of economic hardship. The 2,300 workers at that plant went on a one-week-on, one-week-off roster. Many afternoon shift workers had to do without their penalty rates as they went onto days, and there were also some consequential costs with their childcare arrangements and other things. So this is a very important day, when the second, the afternoon, shift has begun.

It means 50 new jobs at Holden. It means people like Mr Tom Weber, who is also featured in the article in the Advertiserhe lives at Munno Para West, in my electorate—will start his job today on the assembly line. He was getting a bit of a hand from his girlfriend, Shari Bowley, to iron his uniform. It is great to see young people like that—he is 19 years old—getting their first job, getting their first start in Australian manufacturing.

We know that is because of the strong support the government has shown. We have invested $149 million over three years from the Green Car Innovation Fund to help build the four-cylinder Cruze. We got this new car during the depths of the international recession.

So there are an extra 50 staff at Holden. That can potentially grow to up to 150. People have been hired on 12-month contracts in the first instance. It is great to see a buzz in the plant. John Camillo, from the union there, was reporting that people are very confident now. Jon Gee, who is head of the Vehicle Division, is also a strong supporter, and Paul Brown is the head shop steward at Holden. All have played a really significant role, I think, in managing the workforce through this transition. It has not been easy. It has been pretty tough for a lot of people, but it just goes to show you that if we pull together, if we have the support of the industry, the employer, the union and the government, we can protect jobs and expand jobs in this country.

We have also seen a flow-on from Holden’s announcement in that the parts supplier Futuris has taken on 58 workers to meet the demand that is generated by that second shift. Futuris mainly make car seats. They are a very sophisticated manufacturer indeed.

I think this is testimony to the government’s policy. We know that the rest of the world has a significant unemployment problem. In the OECD, the average rate is 8.5 per cent. In the EU it is 9.6 per cent unemployment. In France it is 10 per cent, in Ireland it is 14.1 per cent and in the United States of America it is 9.6 per cent. So we know that there have been some very significant unemployment rates around the world, and behind every one of those statistics is a tragedy, the tragedy of people wanting work, wanting to seek work, but being unable to get it. Australia’s performance during this period is that, since November 2007, 650,000 jobs have been created, 375,000 in the last year, and almost three-quarters of those jobs have been full time in the last year. So we know that the government is doing a great deal that is right.

All I can say is that, when you look at our policies and you look at the Liberal Party’s policies, you know there is a big difference. In November 2008, Joe Hockey said:

I don’t know that it is necessarily the right thing to hand money immediately to the motor vehicle industry in Australia without knowing whether those key companies are going to be merging or … won’t even exist in 12 months’ time.

So what Joe Hockey would have done, what the shadow Treasurer would have done, what the member for North Sydney would have done, was to sit on his hands and let unemployment reign. He would have sat on his hands and let manufacturing workers in my electorate go to the wolves, go into the slaughterhouse of unemployment. It is not good enough, and we should not excuse such inaction.

Question agreed to.