Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Wakefield proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

Australians losing their jobs because of this Government.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

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

It is a sad duty to have to address the house on this MPI. I would rather not have done it. I would rather have not seen the closure of this great industry, the car industry. We remember the history that lies behind this industry. In November 1948, as the Leader of the Opposition says, Ben Chifley watched the first car line off the line at Fishermans Bend, the 48-215—or, as it's known, the FX Holden. Every Prime Minister, from Chifley to Rudd, respected that industry—knew it was important for our national identity, our research and development, our industrial capacity and Australian jobs. Even you, Mr Speaker, know how important Holden was to the psyche of communities and to the identity of our country, because we all had a Holden and we all had relatives who worked in Holden factories or in car component factories.

This industry was in the fabric of our country. It was important to our postwar identity, as important as the Snowy scheme, as important as all of the things we have done—the science, the progress, the development, the industrial capacity. There were 50,000 direct jobs and 200,000 indirect jobs, not just in South Australia, not just in Elizabeth, but in the southern suburbs in Adelaide, in the western suburbs of Adelaide, in western Sydney, in Victoria—thousands and thousands of jobs in components, in research and development, blue collar and white collar, and the thousands of indirect jobs that hung off it.

This was a critically important industry. What have we had post the Rudd government? I will tell you what we have had. We have had a government determined not just to be cavalier about this industry, not just to be indifferent about this industry. We have had a government that bragged about it amongst its cabinet ministers. The then Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, and the then Treasurer, Mr Hockey, bragged off the record about who put the torpedo in the water. I remember reading about that in a Phil Coorey article. We know when the day of judgement came that the car industry did not receive support; rather, they were dared to leave. Who can forget the front page of the Australian Financial Review: 'Hockey dares GM to leave'? The opening line of that article by Phil Coorey and Ben Potter stated:

The federal government has accused General Motors Holden of ingratitude and effectively issued the company its marching orders, making it likely the auto maker’s departure is a formality.

A formality—50,000 jobs wiped. Now we see the consequences of that. Time and time again, we have seen closure after closure, job after job gone, and the slow winding down of this industry. Tomorrow, in my electorate, the last car will come off the line, a VF Commodore—a red line. It is the best car that Holden has ever produced. It is a great car. With the dollar where it is now, it would have been exported to the United States. The Chevy SS would have been exported. The Caprice would have been exported to the US police car market. With the dollar where it is now, this industry, instead of closing down, would have been thriving—not just surviving but thriving—if they had had a government that backed them in, but they didn't have that. Abbott didn't back them in. Hockey didn't back them in. Turnbull didn't back them in.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind the member for Wakefield to use correct titles for members.

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

The Prime Minister, the member for Wentworth—

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The current Prime Minister.

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

The current Prime Minister, as the Shadow Treasurer reminds me. We know when Mr Turnbull, the Prime Minister, was asked what he thought about this industry, he said, 'Oh well, they have to work on their productivity.' That is what he said to workers at the time. These are the workers who carved $20 million in costs out of enterprise bargaining agreements and other work practices. They were doing their bit to secure a billion dollars worth of assistance. They were doing their bit to keep these high-wage, high-skilled jobs in the country. What was the attitude of the Prime Minister to these workers? It was not only one of ignoring them—it's galling that this government wants to pretend that this industry is not closing, that it doesn't even exist—but that the Prime Minister went kayaking on Friday. He went kayaking in some social media stunt. He went down and took a tram somewhere. This is what is supposed to be industrial policy in this country? Rather than defending high-skill, high-wage jobs, the government—which is full of guilty people—have put this industry to the sword and have done so much damage, as they have done in so many other areas, with anaemic wage growth, entry level jobs basically being carved out of the system and attack after attack on the unemployed. What are they doing for jobs in this country? They are closing the one big industry in South Australia—50,000 jobs. This will reverberate across the country—make absolutely no mistake about it.

What would a Prime Minister do if this happened on their watch? Normally, when there are tough conditions, when there are economic winds buffeting, a Prime Minister would show up. Prime Minister Rudd showed up. He showed up at Holden. Gillard—she showed up. But what has Turnbull done? What we just heard from the minister at the table and what we heard in question time was bragging about jobs growth.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Member for Wakefield. I have reminded you about using the correct title.

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

I did. I called him the minister.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I called you to order 20 seconds ago; you didn't hear me.

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

I should have called him the assistant minister at the table.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Wakefield, it wasn't that occasion, it was referring to the current Prime Minister 20 seconds ago but you didn't hear me.

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

I appreciate your intervention, Deputy Speaker. But what do we have? We have the government bragging during question time about their performance, when they have anaemic wage growth and when they have got people under pressure. What will this closure do? What will this unnecessary, violent closure of an entire industry do? It's 13 per cent of our research and development spend alone, with thousands of jobs, but what will they do? They'll say, 'Oh well, things are good. Let's just ignore it.'

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Military patrol boats, that's it!

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

We know what is happening in shipbuilding. I hear my colleague, the member for Kingston, talking about shipbuilding. There are thousands of jobs going in ASC as well. Let's not pretend—as the government wants to do and will no doubt do in a second when they get up and brag about jobs growth—as if that's some sort of camouflage for their performance. There could be more jobs in the economy. Imagine if you didn't close the car industry, you could really get up and brag. We have a gutless Prime Minister. We have a Prime Minister who is guilty of the destruction of this industry and who won't go down to Holden Elizabeth as Chifley did. He won't go down there and make a comment about the last car coming off the line. He won't show up in SA and give us some idea about how our economy might transition.

This is a violent act by this government. Make no mistake about it, it will do immense damage. Unemployment is the key indicator of poverty. I have already met workers, I already know workers, who, without Holden, are in desperate straits. They face losing their homes. What does this government say? They say, 'Go out there and get another job.' That's difficult to do if you're a mature-age worker, that's difficult to do if you have been on WorkCover and that's difficult to do if you don't have easily translatable skills.

This government is terribly guilty, and that's why they won't say anything about the last car coming off the line. I have a little printout—a little picture—of that car. It's a beautiful car, but it doesn't have a Prime Minister next to it. It doesn't have a government minister taking responsibility for this. They just sit there, stone-facedly ignoring the problem, pretending it is not happening and pretending that this violent destruction of Australian jobs—of high-skill, high-wage, important jobs in an iconic industry—is not happening. They want to pretend that this is not happening.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't know what the member for Wakefield was thinking. He even said before he spoke that he was sorry to bring this issue up. I can see why, because this week we have got the best employment growth figures and the best unemployment figures for many, many years. Even the ABC—one of the biggest promoters of the coalition!—lauded the phenomenal jobs growth in the last figures. Manufacturing in South Australia, in the smart manufacturing sector, has produced 3,700 jobs in the last year alone. Since the coalition came to office in 2013, there are 825,000 new jobs circulating in the Australian economy. In the last 12 months alone there have been 371,000 new jobs, of which 80 per cent are full-time jobs. Employment has increased very strongly this year, rising by 3.1 per cent, well above the average rate of only 1.6 per cent over the decade. In fact, it's the highest jobs growth rate since 2008 and it's the longest run of growth and employment that we have had since 2004. That's why I can see why the member for Wakefield was sorry he brought this up as an MPI. Normally, they are meant to be bagging us about bad figures and bad outcomes, but we have got these fantastic employment growth figures.

Labor has failed working Australians. They abandoned the blue-collar workers that depend on a reliable energy scheme and guaranteed dispatchable energy. Under six years of Labor, unemployment grew by 203,000. When the member for Maribyrnong was the Minister for Workplace Relations, unemployment numbers grew by 77,000. Labor made it hard for businesses to employ people because of the $9 billion carbon tax impost. They abolished the Building and Construction Commission, so lawlessness, intimidation and rorts re-entered the construction industry.

As opposed to that, we have really got some great outcomes. As I said, in South Australia they are transitioning to a new manufacturing base, with 3,700 new advanced manufacturing jobs in the last year. Those opposite go on about Holden closing, but who was in charge when Mitsubishi closed in 2008? The other side was. There were 1,000 people put out of work. That's not even factoring in the $66 billion impost that their energy system would impose on businesses in Australia.

We have addressed the fundamentals. We have got the biggest infrastructure build going on in Australian federal history—$75 billion worth of infrastructure. We have put tax cuts in place for small businesses, down to 27½ per cent. Those opposite said that was going to lose money, but company tax revenue shot up in the last budgetary figures. Now the deficit has been reduced by $4.4 billion, mainly on the back of increased company tax income.

On threats to employment, I think the biggest threat to employment is the people on the other side. They are proposing a $66 billion tax on the energy bills that everyone, including businesses, has to pay. The only thing that's worse than expensive energy is no energy, and their systems have delivered exactly that in South Australia. We have people and large businesses with incredible fears and concerns about proposed blackouts in this coming summer. The Energy Guarantee and the changes to the energy market will stop that happening because there will be a guarantee that energy is supplied 99.98 per cent of the time. As I said, the only thing worse than unaffordable energy is no energy, and that's what the country's going to get if the other side are running the country.

We are putting in other forms of infrastructure. In my electorate we've seen 990 direct jobs and over 2,000 indirect jobs out of the Pacific Highway construction boom between the Oxley Highway and Kempsey. We've had an absolute boom in aged-care construction. We have had over 750 construction jobs created as a result of the expansion in aged-care facilities in Gloucester, Taree, Forster and Hawks Nest in my own electorate. That's been echoed and mirrored around the whole country. Through Minister Wyatt's aged-care expansion, growth is exponentially being improved. With that growth in aged-care facilities comes long-term employment. In my electorate of Lyne, that amounts to 400 long-term local, reliable jobs in the aged-care industry.

We have particular programs for unemployed youth aged 15 to 24. Our Youth Jobs PaTH: Prepare, Trial, Hire program is delivering major dividends for young unemployed. At the moment there are 711 interns engaged in this. There are 643 that have recently been appointed to long-term employment as a result of it, and another 11,600 young people have been employed through the youth bonus wage subsidy. So infrastructure and tax cuts are delivering growth in the economy, and that's why our company tax returns are up and unemployment figures are down.

Other infrastructure is delivering dividends. We've got our National Rail Program. The Inland Rail is going to deliver more growth and more transport efficiencies and allow the hinterland of New South Wales, Victoria and up into South-East Queensland grow because it will be connected to an avenue of commerce. We have the Western Sydney Airport Corporation delivering the Western Sydney Airport. That's going to create another 20,000 jobs by the early 2030s. And there will be 60,000 new jobs from the economic opportunities that will flourish with the $5.3 billion in equity and the development of the Western Sydney Airport. There is our Regional Growth Fund, with $472 million to promote regional infrastructure growth, and the Building Better Regions Fund, which is another $200 million. The biggest infrastructure program is Inland Rail. That is really going to be a structural change that will allow inland Australia to flourish, just as the development of rail across the nation opened up areas north and south during the John Howard government.

We realised we need more skilled tradespeople, so we have a Skilling Australia Fund which is delivering $1½ billion to state and territory governments over the first four years. It will prioritise development of apprenticeships and traineeships. With matched state and territory funding, we think there will be support for 300,000 apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships and trainees. We will get more skilled Australians.

We're trying to get young parents who have dropped out of the labour market back into it with our $263 million investment in the ParentsNext Fund. We have particular packages in place for Indigenous employment. We've got a new career transition assistance program and we've got a better jobseeker compliance network. But it is the fundamentals that are driving the growth in jobs. We are trying to deliver efficiencies and we are helping small business. We've given them a tax cut and they get a better return on investment, which gives them the confidence to employ people. By simplifying all their reporting requirements, we are trying to help small businesses get ahead.

In the building and construction industry, we are bringing the rule of law back so that building is more cost-efficient, prices are lower and we can get much better growth in the construction industry, which, in the North Coast, is probably the biggest growth area of employment, along with disability care. The digital economy is also booming, courtesy of all the initiatives that we have put in place. It is embarrassing that the member for Wakefield chose to make an MPI about unemployment—or, rather, growth of employment—when we've got the best figures we've had in more than a decade.

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just listened to the assistant minister. He bragged about job figures, but did not say one word of consolation to the workers who are losing their jobs tomorrow. Not one word of consolation did he offer them and their families about the jobs they've lost. Indeed, he argued this issue shouldn't be brought to the floor of the parliament. Well, I am proud to support the member for Wakefield, who has been doing an enormous job over many years supporting those workers at Holden as they face an unknown future. It is disingenuous of this assistance minister to come in and not even say, 'I'm sorry you're losing your jobs, and I'm sorry your future is uncertain now.' And now he runs out of the chamber—that is what we expect.

But tomorrow is an incredibly sad day. It's a sad day for those in Elizabeth, it's a sad day for Adelaide and it's a sad day for this nation. It is the loss of an iconic brand, the loss of an innovative industry and the loss of skills and expertise. Looking at how it all sums up, Julia Gillard described the potential of car manufacturing:

…Chifley wasn't just launching a car, he was building a nation—taking Australia into a future beyond wool and wheat.

And the industry lasted for seven decades, producing high-quality cars made by highly skilled workers at the forefront of innovation. These workers are casualties of this government.

Maybe I could stomach it if it were just indifference by this government—if it were just their not being active players and just letting this important industry go by the wayside. But it was not indifference that led to this. It was not incompetence—although I could raise many examples of where this government is incompetent. But it wasn't incompetence; it was pure, evil ideology that did not want to support an industry in Australia. I am not sure why; I am not sure whether they thought it was too unionised—I wouldn't put it past them—or whether they don't like building things and prefer to just take minerals out of the ground. Whatever the reason, it was an active decision by this government, the then Prime Minister, the member for Warringah, and also the current Prime Minister and the then Treasurer and the current Treasurer. They all sat around that cabinet table and made the decision. They might argue now that they had nothing to do with it, that it wasn't actually their decision. But we know. I was in this parliament when Joe Hockey, the then Treasurer, told Holden to 'put up or pack up'. That was the message he sent: put up or pack up.

I will read to you from an article back in 2013:

Holden remains unconvinced that the federal government intends providing any further assistance to the industry after 2016 …

This was at a critical moment in time, when Holden were deciding their future, and they went to the government and said, 'Please, we need some assistance for a long-term future,' and the government said no. The government said, 'We will not support you.' It was an outrageous decision that has led to the position we are in today. And of course the casualty is not just those Holden workers; it is components manufacturing right across South Australia, and in my own electorate it is being affected as well. Over the past few months we have seen job losses at Walker's Tenneco and 70 job losses at Monroe. This is just the start. We're looking at close to 12,000 jobs in total. The assistant minister who spoke previously said that perhaps these workers will take the Pathways program and get an internship while they're on the dole. That's a great option for them! Maybe they'll just work casually in aged care? What the assistant minister failed to recognise is that these workers who are losing their jobs are highly skilled and have a huge amount of technical ability. They need to be deployed in a way that is useful and productive for this country. Instead, their jobs have been ripped away by this government.

We all remember the respect this government has for South Australian workers. We remember when the then defence minister said that ASC workers 'couldn't even build a canoe'. That is the respect that this government gives to blue-collar workers in South Australia, workers who have a huge amount of technicality: they ignore them. (Time expired)

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Talk about leading with the chin! The topic for today's matter of public importance is an absolute cracker—an absolute cracker. Here we have a situation where Australia is experiencing the strongest growth in full-time jobs in its history. Never has it recorded this strength in full-time jobs growth. We've now had 12 consecutive months of jobs growth. We have not seen that in 23 years. The unemployment rate is now 5.5 per cent. And some very smart person in the opposition decided that they want to have a crack at the Australian government, the Turnbull government, on jobs? It's bizarre—but we welcome it.

I was wondering who in their right mind, from the Labor Party, would actually want to debate the topic of jobs with the Turnbull government, which has such a demonstrable track record. And I see here that it was actually the member for Wakefield. I believe the member for Wakefield is a member in South Australia. It is quite possible that, as a South Australian, he wrote this topic in the dark. It is quite possible that the lights weren't on. The lights may not have been on when he tried to pen this topic, because as we know South Australia, as an economy, and therefore its workers, has been damaged time and time again by their Labor state government. It is quite possible therefore that the member for Wakefield, in putting this topic forward today, is in fact talking about not the Australian government but the South Australian state Labor government—a government that has totally misused the energy system and has nearly destroyed that economy. That, indeed, is worth criticising.

People are looking for work, people just can't find work and, indeed, many are now losing their jobs—and it happens every day across the world. Members opposite have mentioned the car industry, but it is a tough, tough time for anybody. It's not just a financial problem; there are a whole mix of social issues and of personal relationship issues that often come to into play when one is faced with unemployment. That is when you need government to ensure that it is the enabler for economic growth. For those who are wondering about their future employment, particularly in South Australia, despite having such a disastrous state government rest assured that the coalition government is fighting for you. We have the largest recapitalisation program in the history of the Australian Defence Force—$200 billion to be spent over a 10-year period. A big share of that will be going to South Australia. It will be home to a shipbuilding program delivering 8,000 local jobs. Rest assured that this government is delivering.

There's a reason why we have results on the scoreboard. We now have created 825,500 jobs. Let me correct what I just said—the stat is right, but the government hasn't created the jobs; the coalition government has created the environment for 825,500 extra jobs. Under the Labor Party's six years in office, do you know how many they created or enabled to be created? It was the opposite. There were over 200,000 extra people in the job queue. It is time that the members opposite turned on the lights, looked at the scoreboard and understood that there's only one side of this parliament that enables economic growth and job creation, and that's the coalition. (Time expired)

Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's my great pleasure and honour to speak on this matter of public importance on employment, proposed by the member for Wakefield. The member for Wakefield, over a number of years now, has given extraordinary voice to the shock, the dislocation, the distress and also the dignity of the community of northern Adelaide, particularly his community around Elizabeth, which is going to be so enormously impacted by the closure of the Holden factory tomorrow. Also impacted will be those supply companies that have grown up and operated for so many decades in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, also in the western suburbs of Adelaide that I represent, in the southern suburbs that are represented by the member for Kingston and in the north-eastern suburbs represented by the member for Makin. Holden really has been the outstanding icon of the South Australian economy, stretching back many, many decades. I want to be able to pay tribute to that icon and, most importantly, to the thousands and thousands of South Australians who, over the decades, have worked for Holden and who have worked for the supply companies that have supplied Holden and the other car manufacturing factories like Chrysler and Mitsubishi that have, over the decades, operated in South Australia.

Many people don't know that Holden is a 160-year-old company. It has been operating in South Australia since the middle part of the 19th century. It started as a saddlery business but took the decision in the early 20th century to shift into automotive manufacturing. It didn't build its own iconic Australian car until 1948, as the member for Wakefield has pointed out, but for decades it had the contract to build and assemble cars from American manufacturers, particularly General Motors. In 1924 it built a factory in Woodville—the suburb where I live, in the western suburbs of Adelaide—that operated until the 1980s, building GM cars and then building the Holden. Down at Old Parliament House this morning we had one of the 1952 Holdens that was built at the Woodville plant. A cluster of supply companies built up at the same time and have continued operating in the decades since in the western suburbs—some of them around the corner from my house, one still on the Woodville site, just behind the Bunnings factory, aiAutomotive, and many others as well. Before the war they also built a plant in Birkenhead, Port Adelaide, again in my electorate, employing many thousands of members of the western suburbs community.

In the 1930s Holden had signed a contract to shift their entire South Australian operation to Fishermans Bend, which would've been devastating for a South Australia that was trying to industrialise at the time. They were convinced to keep their operations in South Australia, and the rest has been history. For eight decades this has been, along with the steel blast furnace at Whyalla, one of the twin pillars of the South Australian postwar economy, around which so much research and skills development has grown. Most importantly, so many families' lives have been built around the opportunity to work at the Holden plant at Woodville, at Birkenhead and, since the fifties, out at Elizabeth in the member for Wakefield's electorate. It has been an extraordinary part not only of economy but also of our culture. We always supported the Holden car against the Ford car at Mount Panorama. It was always a big part of our pride, and tomorrow all of that ends.

Tomorrow will be a tragedy for the community in South Australia, particularly in the northern suburbs of Adelaide but also in other parts of Adelaide where those supply companies are such an important part of the manufacturing economy. The University of Adelaide says that the closure of the automotive industry will cost 24,000 jobs. In a small state like South Australia, that will have a devastating impact not just on the economy but on families. School principals in my electorate have for a couple of years now been talking about the distress that their children are evincing because they're worried about what Mum and Dad are going to do after this closure. This was an avoidable decision. As my colleagues have said, this was an act of massive economic self-harm by this government, for which the current Prime Minister also owns part-responsibility as a member of the cabinet at the time. At this time I pay tribute particularly to the work of Holden's workforce now, putting out the highest quality cars, I'm told by the member for Wakefield, of any factory GM runs across the planet. This has been an extraordinary part of South Australia's history; I wish it were part of its future. (Time expired)

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I must admit to the member for Port Adelaide that I was a strong supporter of Moffatt-Bond on Conrod Straight at Mount Panorama over the years.

Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would hope that the local member representing the electorate where the job losses are to be faced tomorrow has been working closely with the union, Centrelink and financial advisers. Some of those losing work with this change will find a new direction. Others will move to compatible and technical employment. It's a tough time, but Aussies are tough. The change is stressful and emotional. But I find sometimes that Labor would rather the Australian nation spend valuable taxpayer dollars to support an industry that had been depending on a government subsidy for some years. They worry about closing certain industries, yet they had six years to incentivise the closing companies to develop alternative manufacturing pathways, as clearly needed to be done. The decision to close many of the operations was in progress during Labor's time in government. Australians themselves did not support our car industry. We didn't all buy Fords and Holdens, nor even Toyotas. A government cannot have a continuous subsidy scheme. There needs to be an operational change to build sustainability.

I sit here sometimes and I wonder about this, but today I think I finally discovered the answer. It seems to me that those with business experience who kept accounts information knew that everything that was positive was in the black. Money in the bank was written in black. But everything that had to be paid was in red. If the number in the black column was bigger than in the red column then we knew we were doing okay. But the Labor Party see the red side as the correct side—the bigger the number on the red side, the happier they are. In fact, when they see whopping big employment numbers on the black side, they think that's a bad thing and say the government is losing jobs. I get it. I finally understand. It's that they don't know how to read the accounting books properly. In my community, they know that not being able to read the accounting books properly is actually not a really good skill. Everyone knows that would be a rubbish strategy.

The Sydney Morning Herald on 16 September this year talked about all the additional jobs that have been created in the first eight months of the year. It was preceded earlier in June by information from Business Insider that again the jobs growth was huge. And today we announced we've got 371,500 more jobs. They are not equally distributed around our nation but certainly indicate we are going in the right direction. Some of the reasons for this increase in employment relate to the natural growth in the jobs market, the increased business confidence and the stability of a government intent on reducing the red side of the taxpayers' accounting books, but they also relate to active policy changes to encourage employers to take on more staff.

From 1 January this year, a number of incentives were put in place. A wage subsidy of up to $10,000 is now available to qualified businesses who employ eligible jobseekers. Some administrative changes also helped. Wage subsidies are being paid over six months instead of 12 months and an optional kickstart payment of up to 40 per cent of the wage subsidy is available for four weeks after the job begins. Minimum working hours are able to be 20 hours per week over the six-month term. There's a new youth bonus wage subsidy of up to $10,000 for employers who hire eligible jobseekers between 15 and 24 years of age. There are other sectors of the jobs market that also attract employer subsidies, and interested employers should contact their local job service providers.

I would suggest that Labor, rather than extolling the virtues of a budget that remains in the red, look more carefully at the opportunities for our working Australians and those wanting to work. Let's develop policies to grow enterprising skills among young employees, as these are likely to be the most critical skills for jobs of the future. Based on government projections, Australia will have between 5.6 million and 6.4 million job changes up to 2025. In 10 years Australia will have jobs we haven't dreamt of, but we know very many well-known occupations will still be in high demand.

My final point relates to the absolute correlation between the cost of energy and jobs. It's simple, really: the higher the price of energy, the fewer the jobs; and the lower the reliability of energy, the higher the employment numbers. Labor really need to look at the red and the black sides and realise that deficits and negative balances in government are not desirable.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When Ben Chifley in 1948 launched the first Holden off the assembly line, it was a proud moment for Australia, as the headline in this newspaper I am holding clearly shows. Tomorrow will be a sad day for Australia. On Sunday I went out to Elizabeth, to a function organised by Holden for the local community there. I was there with the member for Wakefield. Every model of every Holden ever made was on display. It was a visual presentation of the work, innovation, design and contribution to Australia and the Australian economy that Holden has made for almost 70 years. Since 1948, 7.5 million cars have been produced by Holden, with 45 different models. Into each of those models went design and innovation. Seven decades of Australians not only built those cars but built a life for themselves and their families either working for Holden or working for one of its component manufacturers. Holden, as the member for Wakefield quite rightly pointed out, was not just a brand. It was an iconic, unique Australian brand. Some members might recall the ad: 'football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars'. It became part of the Australian psyche.

On Sunday there was another very clear message from that event, as I spoke to Holden executives that are still with the company right now. Their clear message to me was that Holden would have stayed in Australia but for the negative attitude towards them from the Abbott-Turnbull coalition government. Holden was forced out of Australia by this coalition government, and it was this coalition government that turned on Holden. This will go down as one of the worst decisions ever made by an Australian government. Not only did Holden get pushed out of Australia; with them went Toyota, because Toyota had made it absolutely clear in the days before it happened that one car maker alone in Australia would not survive. They said that to the sham Productivity Commission inquiry that was underway at the time. Holden had two new models on the line, and Toyota had a strong export business going at the time. As Mike Devereux, the Holden chief executive at the time, pointed out, the car-making industry and Holden's contribution to Australia was $33 billion, or 18 times the level of assistance they were receiving. Those figures have never been disputed.

Australia was one of 13 countries that could design and make a car from start to finish. Of the G20 countries, only Saudi Arabia did not make cars, and now Australia will join them. Indeed, while Australia joins them, Saudi Arabia is going in the opposite direction and wanting to get into the car-making business. The loss of car making in this country wasn't just a loss of car making in its own right but a loss of manufacturing capability, including the massive loss of seven decades of research, design, expertise and skills that had built up over that time.

For South Australia, the cuts will be terrible. Twenty-four thousand jobs or thereabouts will be lost. The economy will take a $3.7 billion hit. The social costs, whether in unemployment, housing stress or health effects, are already being seen. In the Playford council area, where the unemployment rate is 15 per cent, and in Elizabeth, where it is 32 per cent, it will hit hard. So let's not talk about employment figures elsewhere in Australia. Holden's closure is this government's present to the people of the northern suburbs of Adelaide for Christmas. It is shameful.

I make another point about the stupidity of this decision. The two car makers were producing nearly 200,000 cars a year at the time. That is going to affect our balance of trade, because all of those cars will now have to come in from overseas, or it will be a loss of export.

I finish on this point. I take this opportunity to thank the people who, over seven decades, made South Australia proud to be the home of Holden, and Australians proud to drive a Holden. It's the car I drive. They showed that Australia could build a world-class car, and for seven decades we did that. I certainly wish them well in their endeavours to get work elsewhere, but I know how disappointed they are that their jobs have come to an end. I repeat what I said earlier: this would have to go down as one of the worst decisions ever made by a government, certainly in my lifetime.

Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very surprised by this matter of public importance from the member for Wakefield, claiming that Australians are losing their jobs because of this government when in fact it is the very opposite. We currently have the strongest full-time jobs growth in Australia's history. In my electorate of Dunkley, in fact, unemployment increased under Labor, peaking at 6.2 per cent at the end of their terms of government in September 2013. In March 2017, after four years of coalition government, it dropped to 5.4 per cent, on the latest Dunkley-specific figures that I have. This compares very favourably to national figures. We have seen the unemployment rate decrease by 0.1 of a percentage point over the last month, to 5.5 per cent in September 2017. We've seen over 825,000 jobs created under our government, with employment standing at a record high of over 12.2 million jobs in September 2017. The participation rate is at a five-year high, and jobs growth is the highest since 2008. Over the last 12 months, 371,000 jobs were created. We've also seen, under this government, employment increase strongly, rising by 3.1 per cent over the last year, well above the decade average rate of 1.6 per cent.

Specifically in Dunkley, since I was elected, the federal government has made over 200 different funding investments, many of which contribute to jobs growth locally. One key investment is the $4 million going towards our Dunkley rail plan, which will be a business case to extend Metro rail from Frankston to Baxter. This project in and of itself will create 4,000 jobs, cutting unemployment in our area by up to one per cent. It will reduce youth disengagement by two per cent, increase local university enrolment by up to 20 per cent and provide hospital accessibility. But, like their federal counterparts, Victorian state Labor decided to delay this jobs growth over the past 12 months by stopping our federally funded business case going ahead. Only after a year of continual advocacy by me and the minister have they finally signed off.

On similar matters, federal Labor are worse than their state counterparts, and they were even worse when they were in government. To start with, they want to increase our energy costs, which will only make it harder for businesses to create more jobs. Labor failed working Australians. Under six years of their government, the jobless queues grew by around 203,000. In the period that the Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Workplace Relations, the number of unemployed people increased by around 77,000 while his government was busy signing off on more and more 457 visas. Consider, for example, that when Labor were in government previously they made it harder for businesses to employ people by hitting them with a $9 billion-a-year carbon tax, hitting them with a mining tax and abolishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission—all things that contributed to Labor losing government.

In contrast, we have a plan to grow the economy and create new jobs. To this end we have, for example, included in the latest budget $75 billion in infrastructure funding from now until 2026-27. We've cut the tax rate for small businesses to 27.5 per cent. We've also invested in the establishment of a $10 billion National Rail Program to deliver rail projects that better connect our cities and regions and create job opportunities. I hope that once the state government figures out that the Baxter electrification in my electorate of Dunkley is a good thing it will contribute state funding, and then the federal government could co-contribute to this important local project. We've got the Regional Growth Fund, which will invest $472 million in regional infrastructure projects. And we've also seen several successful programs in Dunkley funded by the federal government, such as those via the Brotherhood of St Laurence or the Work for the Dole program within vision services.

In conclusion, I say to the member for Wakefield and Labor: stop the falsities and tell the truth—coalition governments create jobs. (Time expired)

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great sadness that I too rise today to speak on this matter of public importance—Australians losing their jobs because of this government. It is very sad to see that one of our iconic manufacturers in this country, which has been producing cars for over 70 years, is shutting its doors tomorrow. It has been not only producing and manufacturing cars but skilling people, creating jobs—jobs of the future as well—and helping build the nation through the car manufacturing industry. With an issue as important as this one in the House—it is something that is so important to all of us in South Australia and all the SA MPs, especially on this side—it really surprised me, in listening to the different speeches of members opposite, to find that they have no understanding and no real idea of the car industry and car manufacturing. We heard, for example, the member for Gilmore—and I am glad that she is here in the chamber—say we can't go on subsidising industries. I have to tell you, all you have to do is go to the library and they will get the figures for you, as they got them for me a couple of years ago. You have a look at every car manufacturing country in the world and every single one subsidises their industry. They subsidise their industry because they know of the value-adding to the economy. You have a look at Germany, the US, Brazil, Thailand, Korea and Japan: they all have a subsidy for each assembly line worker working on a production line.

We were one of the lowest subsidies in the world—the lowest, not the highest. We weren't subsidising to keep an industry going; we were subsidising because we knew it value-added to the economy. It created jobs and had a spin-off for small manufacturers. It ensured we created technologies and different industries. If we look at General Motors Holden in Australia, we were one of the only nations in the world—one of 13 nations—that could create a motor vehicle from the idea to the design to the showroom in the caryard. Those were the skills that we developed in this nation, and to see Holden shutting down is very sad.

The end of motor vehicle production in this country was not inevitable. The people in this country know who to blame. The Liberal Party is to blame, including Joe Hockey, now the ambassador to the US. I am glad to see he was looked after with a good golden handshake, unlike the Holden workers tomorrow who will be leaving those factory gates not knowing what their future holds. The former Prime Minister and, of course, the current Prime Minister have destroyed an industry that was a good industry, which created jobs and ensured that it created technology and industries.

Let's look at South Australia for a moment, with the next batch of job losses. We know that the closure of Holden has a spin-off of approximately 50,000 jobs that will be lost. That's 50,000 jobs, and we could have done something. We all remember your Treasurer in this place; we remember him very well. He goaded Holden and told them to basically leave the country. We remember Mr Devereux, the chairman of GMH, in a front-page article in July 2013, saying: 'If this government tries to mess with our subsidies or mess with us, we will leave.' That is exactly what happened. We remember that speech here in this place by your Treasurer, who absolutely goaded them out of this country—Holden could have still been there today.

We also know that the people of South Australia will remember, and they know who to blame. They will know. I dare those mentioned on the other side—the Prime Minister and others—to come out to the suburbs of Adelaide, as the last Holden car comes off the production line, and meet the workers as they leave the gates of the manufacturing factory that they have worked at for years and leave their manufacturing, high-skill jobs to go home to their families for an uncertain future.

GMH gave work to many people; one of those people who worked there was my father. He came off a boat in the early fifties and, on his second day in Australia, he started at Fishermans Bend. From Fishermans Bend he went to the Woodville factory in South Australia. From there, he was transferred to Elizabeth and spent most of his working life there. I know the importance of that and how it put food and bread on our table. This closure is a travesty and it should not have happened. (Time expired)

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the member for Boothby, I will just remind the member for Mackellar that he is not in his seat and he's not able to inject during the debate. I remind other members of that as well.

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If those opposite wanted to talk about Holden, why didn't they move a matter of public importance on Holden rather than this bizarre matter of public importance? It's another bizarre matter of public importance from those opposite that talks about Australians losing their jobs because of this government, which, as we know, is not the case. Since we have been in government in 2013, we have created an extra 825,500 jobs. The matter of public importance makes no sense whatsoever but that's really what we expect from those opposite. Very often they don't make much sense at all. I can tell you that what really makes no sense are the state Labor government in South Australia's energy policies that have seen us end up with the most expensive electricity in the world—not just in the nation, but in the world—and successive blackouts. The state Labor government have been in power for 16 long years and they have delivered a disaster to my home state.

We know why power is important—without affordable and reliable electricity, there won't be any jobs in Australia because employers won't be able to afford to employ people in those jobs. When electricity prices are too high and when electricity is unreliable, we hurt jobs, and that's what's happened in South Australia. This was the very clear message that I heard from my local employers at a forum that I held with the Minister for the Environment and Energy. I'm grateful to the minister for travelling to South Australia to talk to my businesses direct about the skyrocketing power prices in South Australia, what it means for them as employers and what it may mean for jobs.

Businesses in my home state of South Australia and in my electorate of Boothby are already doing it really tough thanks to the Weatherill Labor government's complete mismanagement of the South Australian economy. My businesses do not have the capacity to absorb the horrific electricity price hikes that will kick in on 1 January for many businesses. There is no employer being left untouched by this energy crisis in South Australia created by the South Australian Labor Party. I pray that those opposite, with their very irresponsible policies that they would implement if they were elected, will not be elected. I will be doing my very best to make sure that they're not, because if they are we will see the power situation worsen.

Our hotels, motels and pubs, who employ thousands of South Australians, are facing increases of 50 per cent in their power costs. Some businesses have told me that their power bills will be an extra $750,000 a year as of next year. That is unbelievable, and I do not know how those businesses will be able to absorb those costs. Some local supermarkets, for example, are facing up to a 72 per cent increase in their electricity bills, and others have bills that are doubling. We're talking of a lot of them, because they are relatively energy-intensive users—they have a lot of refrigerators and freezers and a lot of lights. We're looking at bills heading into millions of dollars of increased energy costs to them. These independent supermarkets, in particular, who employ about 5,500 South Australians across the state, are going to have to find these millions of dollars from somewhere to meet the cost of keeping their lights on and the fridges and the freezers running.

The government has had to budget for extra millions of dollars to build or buy generators so that when we start our Defence shipbuilding program we can guarantee that the power won't go out in South Australia. This is why we, on this side, have a highly responsible and careful energy policy that will make sure we bring down prices for hardworking South Australians, for families and for businesses. We will be doing everything we can to guarantee the reliability of the system as well.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion is now concluded.