Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. Will the Acting Prime Minister update the House on progress the government is making to provide certainty to workers in the automotive industry?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question because I know that there is considerable anxiety within the motor vehicle manufacturing industry about the future of General Motors in Australia. The comment made this morning by Mr Devereux, the general manager, that no decision has been made at this point just adds to the uncertainty. What this government have said we want is a clear commitment that General Motors will remain active in Australia. The statements today include no clear commitment to stay in manufacturing in this country, yet it was only two years ago when Holden said it had achieved 'sustained profitability in Australia'. So just two years ago the company was reporting sustainable profitability and now it has not ruled out abandoning manufacturing in this country.

This government are doing their part to endeavour to create a better atmosphere for manufacturing in Australia. As far as the motor vehicle industry is concerned, we have got rid of the $1.8 billion changes to the fringe benefits tax which were going to have such an enormous impact on the motor vehicle manufacturing industry. Of course, we have legislation in the parliament to get rid of the carbon tax, which adds to the cost of every vehicle made in this country.

Holden is an Australian icon, and we want to have a nation where companies such as Holden can prosper and achieve their objectives in manufacturing. So today I have written to the general manager of Holden, Mr Devereux, asking General Motors to make an immediate statement clarifying their intentions in this country. They owe this to the workers of General Motors. Let us not go into the Christmas period without General Motors making a clear commitment to manufacturing in this country and responding to this government's endeavours to improve the manufacturing environment in Australia.

The government is committed to making Australia a place where manufacturing can prosper and where we can work together as a society, as a community and as an economy, not to just allow manufacturing jobs to drift away as they did under the previous regime, but instead to work together to find ways to make sure that manufacturing continues to employ people in this country and that we have a strong and robust manufacturing industry for future generations of Australians.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. From 2001 to 2012, Holden generated $32.7 billion of economic activity in Australia and paid $21 billion to other businesses in Australia. During that period Holden received $1.8 billion in Commonwealth government assistance. Does the Treasurer consider 18 to 1 a good return on investment?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The best return on investment that you can have is for a business to invest its own money, make its own profits and remain sustainable. That is the best return of investment you can have. It is a foreign concept to the Labor Party. I was looking at the frontbench yesterday, and I was wondering: who has ever worked in the private sector in the Labor Party?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Two—two people have!

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

Three—come on, Joel, don't embellish it! Sorry, it is three. On the whole frontbench of the Labor Party, three people have ever worked in the private sector. How many have worked in the private sector in the coalition?

Government members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! We will desist from all of this unruly behaviour.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There you go—we know what return on investment looks like. Return on investment comes about by doing the hard yards; by having a government that can accommodate investment and risk and that does not look at someone who is profitable and say, 'I want that,' which is what Labor does. Labor does not ever witness a profit that it does not want to take off a hardworking employer or a hardworking employee.

As the Deputy Prime Minister said, 'we want to have a strong manufacturing industry in Australia'. But we have inherited an economy where one job in manufacturing was lost every 19 minutes under Labor. Under Labor, Ford closed their doors and Mitsubishi closed their doors. How about that? Talk about return on investment! That is what you judge to be a good return on investment, is it? Labor's answer to everything is just to throw more money at it. Their response is always to put their political interests ahead of the commercial interests of individual companies.

So I would say to the Leader of the Opposition: put Australia first, put the workers first and join with the Acting Prime Minister and the government in calling on Holden to come clean with the Australian people about their intentions here. We want them to be honest about it—we want them to be fair dinkum—because, if I was running a business and I was committed to that business in Australia, I would not be saying that I have not made any decision about Australia. Either you are here or you are not.