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

I rise to defend Holden's workers. There has been a lot of careless, uninformed talk by those opposite, by journalists and by pointy-headed economists, who have basically never made anything in their lives. Between them, they have never exported anything, never constructed anything and never made anything. Yet, in this House and outside, and in the broadsheets, they are getting stuck into workers, who have only just done the decent thing to strike a wage deal that gives them three per cent per annum—no more than any of those on the other side would award themselves; a catch-up payment for sacrificing up to 60 per cent of their pay during the GFC to protect jobs; and payments linked to quality production and performance—productivity payments. What a shock! It is about time those opposite stopped laying into the national icon, Holden, and its workforce. It is about time they stopped undermining their excellent performance both in the Australian market and in the international marketplace. This is a great company. It deserves our respect and its workforce deserves our support.