Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I refer to the Prime Minister's December statement:

… it is the Government’s strong wish that Toyota continue to manufacture in this country. We will be talking to them about the best ways of ensuring that that happens.

After making this statement, did the Prime Minister personally speak to Toyota, as he promised he would? What did he do to stop Toyota from closing its doors yesterday?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members of this government, the Treasurer and the industry minister, have been in regular discussions with Toyota. I met with the chief of Toyota Australia in December last year and I assured him that assistance would be available to Toyota on the same basis as it had been available in times past. I gave him that assurance. I told him that, as far as this government was concerned, we wanted manufacturing to continue in this country. I did meet with both Mr Max Yasuda and more senior officers of Toyota yesterday and I did ask them if there was anything that we in government could do to cause this decision to be reconsidered? I regret to announce this to the House, but they said that they had carefully considered the economics of manufacturing in Australia, the costs of manufacturing in Australia, the conditions of motor manufacturing in Australia and their decision was final.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You let them go.

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

The member for Isaacs will desist.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Labor Party is desperate to play the blame game in this parliament. I think the Australian people deserve better than that. What the Australian people expect of us in this place is a consistent, serious attempt to get the fundamentals right so that the honest workers and the honest businesses of this country can create the prosperity that the Australian people want, and that is exactly what this government will do.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry. I remind the minister that this is a very difficult and challenging period for the thousands of workers involved in car manufacturing in my electorate of Corangamite and across Australia. How is the government working with industry to implement a plan for growth, identify new global markets and maximise future opportunities?

Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question. I will also comment on her extraordinary hard work in the short time that she has been the member for Corangamite. She constantly represents her electorate with vigour, with enthusiasm and with positivity because she knows as much as anyone—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The member for Wakefield!

Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

in this House the challenges that face industry in Australia. This government recognises that it is an extraordinarily difficult time. We know that as a result of the announcement yesterday the face of industry in Australia will be changed forever. But this transition has been coming for some time and no-one on that side of the House can deny that fact. We are in a competitive market; our dollar has been high. This government, from the day it was elected, began a broad considered response to the industry needs in terms of increasing the value of its production and moving it to areas where we are competitive rather than producing a commodity in a world market where we simply are not able to compete any longer.

Mr Watts interjecting—

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

The member for Gellibrand!

Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have set out to review the economies of both Victoria and South Australia and that process has already travelled some distance—in fact, as you know, I was in Victoria three weeks ago and in South Australia last week. We have established a $100 million growth fund to ensure that development goes on in the wake of, particularly, the closures of Holden. We have established a national competitive industry innovation agenda, led by the Prime Minister, along with the Treasurer, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the trade minister.

We do work towards transforming Australian industry but with a precise and measured approach. What we have seen from those opposite in the past, in the last six years, is chequebook diplomacy: see a problem, rip out the chequebook, throw money at it—knowing full well that there is no solution coming from any of that. The changes in industry have been going on for some time. What we need to do is make sure we address the issues that are there, not attribute blame, not lament, not say this is a catastrophe. This is a challenge, and Australians have a record of rising to that challenge. We need to use our innovation; we need to use our wit.

Ms King interjecting—

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

The member for Ballarat!

Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We need to make sure we provide opportunities for the workers not only of Toyota, Holden and Ford but all Australian workers, and that we are transitioning this economy to something that is sustainable.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to comments by his employment minister about Toyota today, where he said: 'I did not know it was coming. From discussing these matters with my colleagues, I do not think anybody else was expecting it.' Will the Prime Minister confirm his government had no idea and did nothing to secure the future of automotive manufacturing in this country?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I have just said in answer to the Leader of the Opposition's previous question, I met with the head of Toyota Australia in December last year personally to reassure him that, as far as this government was concerned, we wanted Toyota to continue manufacturing in Australia. We wanted to assure Toyota that assistance would be available on much the same basis in the future that it had been made available in the past. I understand that the opposition wishes to sheet this home entirely to the government even though this plainly is something that has been taking place over quite some years now. I know that mere statistics are not of much consolation to people who are facing the closure of their business. But it is a fact that since 2007 motor production in this country has declined by a third. It is a fact that since 2007 motor employment has declined by a quarter. We all deeply regret the devastating announcement that Toyota made yesterday. We all deeply lament this. But our challenge as a government, our challenge as a parliament, is not to preserve every single business indefinitely. Our challenge is to create the conditions under which people, if necessary, can transition from good jobs to even better jobs. And I say to members opposite, whose sincerity I do not doubt: is it going to be easier to get a good job with a carbon tax or without a carbon tax? Is it going to be easier to get a good job with a mining tax or without a mining tax? Is it going to be easier to get a good job with businesses at times being strangled by green tape or without that? Is it going to be easier to get a good job with the Australian Building and Construction Commission restored or without it? So these are the questions before this parliament, and I think that the honest workers of this country know who their real friends are.

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

I call the Hon. the Leader of the Opposition. I am sorry; I did not see the honourable member for Fairfax. My apologies to the member. I am sorry I did not look in your direction initially, Member for Fairfax. You have the call.

Clive Palmer (Fairfax, Palmer United Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take that as a compliment, Madam Speaker.