Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the appointment in 2009 of a steel supplier advocate whose job was to work with the Australian steel industry to win major contracts and to boost local content. If the Prime Minister really cares about the steel industry, why has that steel supplier advocate position been vacant for nine months? Why should anyone believe the local content announcement the government made yesterday when it made the same announcement two years ago?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the Leader of the Opposition I say the position he refers to is an important position. We have been consulting and working with industry to get the right person to fill it. But even as that work has been happening we have rolled out measures under our Australian procurement statement. If I can take the Leader of the Opposition to those measures, because I think they are important for members of parliament to understand and for local communities, through them, to understand, that was a $50 million package which had, as part of it, buying Australian at home and abroad and to put in advocacy work for Australian suppliers. At its heart it also had procurement plans so that when we engage in procurement that we deal with people who have Australian industry procurement plans and participation plans so that we know that local industry will benefit. In addition, through that policy we have had other measures of ensuring that people in the private sector also have Australian industry participation plans. That has worked to leverage billions of dollars of new investment which has made a difference to Australian suppliers. That work comes on top of the investments that we have made in the new car plan, a plan of more than $5 billion to make sure we continue to be a nation that manufactures automobiles. All of this work comes on top of the other measures taken by Minister Carr through the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and the powering Australian ideas agenda.

Across the board we have been engaged with manufacturing. We have also been engaged with manufacturing through skills work, which is very important if we are to retain manufacturing in this country. It is certainly my aim that we have the right skill sets. They need to be broad and they need to be deep, which is why we have been investing in skills and I am pleased that that has deepened our skills profile, with more Australians studying at certificate III level and above. It is why we made $3 billion available in the recent budget so that we could better assist with skills and drive a reform agenda.

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, but I also say that I really do wonder whether he can ask to be taken seriously on this agenda when the stated positions of the opposition on manufacturing are as follows: that they would cut $176 million from the textile, clothing and footwear strategic capability program—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The Prime Minister will resume her seat.

Mr Entsch interjecting—

The member for Leichhardt is warned.

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

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: the Prime Minister was asked a question about why the Steel Supplier Advocate position has been vacant for nine months. She was not asked anything about the coalition's policies and I would ask that you draw her back to the question or sit her down.

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

Order! The member for Sturt will resume his seat. On the first aspect of the point of order raised by the member for Sturt, he knows that the question then went on to other matters. The Prime Minister will directly relate her material to the question.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was asked on the question of motivation and seriousness about manufacturing and I am making the point that the government will continue to invest and work with manufacturing. As we have done in the past, we will continue in the future.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The members for Cowper and Sturt are warned.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I presume the Leader of the Opposition intends to continue with his stated cutbacks: $176 million in textiles, clothing and footwear; $102 million in combining Enterprise Connect and AusIndustry; and $500 million in the Automotive Transformation Scheme, a cutback to which the Leader of the Opposition recently recommitted—something he clearly had not conveyed to his shadow minister because on radio today she was unable to answer questions about whether that half-a-billion dollar cutback was going ahead. It is official opposition policy and I believe Australians will judge them on it.