Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The mining boom is hurting the rest of the economy, with manufacturing, tourism and agriculture all affected by the high dollar. We have known for some time that large mining giants are making enormous profits, much of which are being sent overseas—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The member for Melbourne has the call. He is asking a question and he should be heard in silence.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know that on some projects as little as little as 10 per cent of the steel used is produced locally. Will the government commit to mining corporations having local content requirements for its investments in Australia?

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

I thank the member for Melbourne for the only decent question asked by a non-government member during question time today. I do not know whether it is only me who is amused or whether it may be amusing others that the only non-government member prepared to ask a question about the economy is from the Greens! We cannot get one from the once-great Liberal Party. I do not know if that is amusing only to me or whether it might amuse people more broadly. As the Liberal Party sinks in its stinking hole of mud and hypocrisy, I have been asked a question by the member for Melbourne, which is on a serious issue—that is, the jobs of Australian workers.

To the member for Melbourne I say: we understand that the economic circumstances of today, where the Australian economy is strong in its fundamentals—

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So why are you introducing a carbon tax then? You are making it worse!

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

Order! The member for Indi!

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

To the member for Indi, why is she cutting industry assistance? Maybe she wants to justify that. Why is she cutting industry assistance—

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

The member for Indi will cease interjecting and the Prime Minister will ignore the interjections.

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

ripping half a billion dollars of industry support away from manufacturing workers? It is because—

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Two billion dollars, you are cutting! Two billion dollars in promises were cut.

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

Order! The member for Indi will cease interjecting.

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

the member for Indi and the Leader of the Opposition think manufacturing workers are good backdrops for a photo, but they do not think anything else about them. That is the only thing they have ever thought about them. They do not care about their jobs and they do not care about industry assistance for their jobs.

To the member for Melbourne, we are in economic times where, yes, the turbocharged nature of the resources boom is keeping the Australian dollar high, and that is putting pressure on other industry segments, including manufacturing. We understood that this was going to happen, so we have been working on it and setting up for it, understanding that this is where we would get to. We have strongly engaged with manufacturing through the framework of powering ideas—the innovation framework.

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So why has the steel council not met for six months?

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

The member for Indi is warned!

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

We have strongly engaged with them through the procurement statement that has, as a subset, the Buy Australian at Home and Abroad initiative—

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has not met. The steel council has not met.

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

The member for Indi, having been warned, will leave the chamber for one hour under 94(a).

The member for Indi then left the chamber.

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

Under the Australian procurement statement we have supported the Buy Australian at Home and Abroad initiative, and this week we were pleased to announce that Peter Beattie would be the resources sector supplier envoy in relation to that. We have also had industry participation plans to work through. These are ways of ensuring that when we are a purchaser, when government is tendering, that we can leverage that purchasing power for the creation of an Australian Industry Participation Plan. We also have the Enhanced Project By-law Scheme, which does the same sort of leveraging when people seek particular arrangements, as well as the Supplier Access to Major Projects program, which leverages against government decision-making procurement and procurement directed at Australian suppliers. We understand that in this period of change we need to stay very strongly engaged with manufacturing. I believe manufacturing has a future in this country. It will require a government that values jobs and values manufacturing to work with it, and we are such a government.