Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. Will the minister update the House on how the government is supporting business in the defence industry to grow and employ more Australians in the workforce behind the Defence Force? Can the minister identify any threats to businesses and workers' livelihoods?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Defence industries across Australia are almost all small and medium enterprises. There are probably a dozen that we would regard as primes. There are probably about 3,000 small and medium enterprises in the defence industry spread across the country, and many of those would have turnovers of between $2 million and $50 million. There are companies like Yamba Welding and Engineering in the member for Page's electorate, which is building and maintaining boats for a Navy company. There are companies like Airflite, in the member for Pearce's electorate, which provides maintenance for PC9 trainers at RAAF Base Pearce, or Fibre Tech, which I visited with the member for Corangamite, in Geelong, which makes fibre, cables and nets for rigging for air transport for the ADF. Also, in Braddon, in Penguin, Penguin Composites make bonnets for the Hawkei. ERIPIO, in Longman, in Caboolture, provide beaching equipment and folding stretchers for Defence. Even in Mayo, in Uraidla, there is Novacom, which is a key partner in Thales's minesweeping exports.

All of these companies, spread right across Australia—and that's only half-a-dozen—have basically got turnovers of $2 million to $50 million, and they are replicated right throughout regional Australia and in the capital cities. They are the companies from which the Leader of the Opposition wants to rip away the company tax cuts that this government has provided. They are the companies that the Leader of the Opposition wants to declare war on. They're the companies—small, family enterprises, many of them—with good ideas, who are hardworking and are making good because of this government's investment in defence and defence industry capability, the largest in our peacetime history. That's what's going on out in the real world. The Leader of the Opposition wants to make those companies' jobs much, much harder. He wants to belt those companies. He wants to send them broke.

The member for Bass got it right today. It wasn't a very pretty interview, it must be said. The member for Bass got it right. The Leader of the Opposition's war on business is a war on jobs; it's a war on growth; it's a war on the Australian economy; it is a war on family businesses and small and medium enterprises; it's a war on wages. The Leader of the Opposition isn't some mythological fighter, fighting against the top end of town on behalf of small and medium enterprises. He's belting small and medium enterprises. They're not the top end of town. And he's saying to families on $95,000 a year that they are the top end of town and trying to take away their personal income tax cuts. The Leader of the Opposition is a dangerous man for Australian families and for Australian businesses.