Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is absolutely correct that the government respond to the challenges besetting our farmers, and the opposition totally supports the response, although we make the point that it was later than it should have been. But the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector is as devastating for those individuals as being confronted with drought is for farmers. We need a government that will represent all Australians that need a hand. We need a government that will not favour one group over another. We need a government that will engage fully with those Australians who are doing it tough. There is no doubt in my mind that farmers are doing it tough and they deserve the federal government's support. But the little support I have seen from the government to date to assist the manufacturing-sector workers in this country suggests to me that this government does not support evenly, fairly or without favour different groups in our society. That is a shame and it is something that the government can redress. The government can respond with a jobs plan for sectors that are struggling, and that is something I ask the government to consider.

The other concern I have in relation to the government's efforts to date is that it seems to be distracted from its main role of looking after those people that I have just mentioned. It seems to be focused more on using the resources and powers of the state to attack those it perceives to be its political enemies rather than on fighting for Australian jobs.

The opposition have said we will support the royal commission into the Home Insulation Program, and we do; but we do not support its terms of reference because they do not seem to be crafted in a manner that focuses on what we can do to prevent tragedies such as those that arose out of that program from happening again. We are also concerned that the government has torn up a century-old convention by disclosing government documents to the royal commissioner, which we would say is a fundamental breach of the Westminster tradition.

Debate interrupted.