Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

In continuation of my remarks from the other day on the Tax Laws Amendment (Luxury Car Tax) Bill 2008 and related legislation, it is interesting to note that we used to have a senator here, who was well known to all of us and a hard player—a gentleman known by the name of George Campbell. He was one of the great protectors of the Australian manufacturing workers and the Australian manufacturing industry. He was a hard player and was well respected. He was also a very affable person and would come around and have a drink with you at night. But apparently he was not hard or tough enough around this show. He had to be replaced and the Labor Party replaced him with someone who said that he was really going to take a strong line on the protection of manufacturing workers’ jobs.

The person who took his position was, of course, Senator Doug Cameron, who is a lovely bloke. I remember the sort of curry the Labor Party used to give me on issues last year and how they would put the torch on me. One of the first things that Doug did when he arrived here was to roll over on a tax that is going to put manufacturing workers out of a job—the luxury car tax. It is a tax that is going to affect the car industry in South Australia and Victoria. I know that Senator Cameron is a decent bloke. I know he knows that this is going to affect his workers and his union. But he has rolled over for them. He has rolled over and has basically become a doormat. Once more the Labor Left has become a doormat to the Right. They have been walked all over, trodden on and kicked around the room because the Right run the show. And the Right do not care about manufacturing workers’ jobs and they are intent on putting a blowtorch to the Australian car industry. And the tax will cost Australian working families their jobs in the most direct form.

The Labor Party are trying to glam this over and cover this up by saying, ‘You are out there protecting people who drive Porsches, Maseratis, Jaguars and Ferraris.’ I was interested because I thought that I must be able to pick up one of these cars for $57,180. So I went shopping. I had a bit of a wander around to see if I could get myself a Porsche 911 for $57,180. You could have knocked me down with a feather. Do you know how much those things cost? They cost $425,000. I said to them, ‘Senator Cameron reckons I can get one of these for $57,180. He reckons there must be one out the back. Have you got a cheaper version of the Porsche 911?’ But I cannot find one. I thought: ‘Not a problem. I will try a Jaguar XK Coupe. I should be able to get hold of one of them because the Labor Party keep telling me that this is the tax that is protecting these cars.’ I said, ‘Have you got a Jaguar XK Coupe for $57,180?’ And they said, ‘Don’t be crazy. That car is a quarter of a million dollars.’ So I had a look at a Ferrari because we are protecting people who drive Ferraris. The Labor Party, including Senator Carr, put an inflection in their voices when they say, ‘You are protecting Ferrari drivers.’ You would be surprised to find out that the Ferrari 599 is $574,000. They had none for $57,180. I looked everywhere. I looked up and down the car lots saying that there must be one of these Ferraris around here for $57,180. Not a chance. They are $574,000. What is that? It is 574 gorillas. That is a big hit. You just do not seem to be able to get any BMWs under that price either. They are not around. A Maserati Quattroporte was $281,000. But apparently the Labor Party know where you can find them for $57,180.

As we have said before, if someone is down the pub trying to sell you a Ferrari 599 for $57,180, it is hot. It is red hot and dodgy. That is like this policy that the Labor Party has brought out: it is red hot and dodgy. Not only are they putting their own manufacturing workers union members out of a job and not only are they putting excessive pressure on the working families of Victoria and South Australia, but they are apparently in the business of finding dodgy cars. I walked around the lot and asked: ‘What cars can I get for $57,180? I want something that is comfortable.’ They said, ‘If you want to pay a little bit more money, we can get you a Ford.’ I asked: ‘Who makes them?’ And they said, ‘Australia.’ I asked: ‘What about Holdens?’ They said, ‘Yep, we can get you one of those.’ I asked: ‘Where are they made?’ They said, ‘Australia.’ I asked: ‘What about Toyota?’ They said, ‘Yep, Australia.’ In fact every car manufacturing plant in Australia produces numbers of cars that are in this group.

It stands to reason that if you send a price mechanism signal to the consumer not to buy the product, they will not buy an Australian product. What we are exporting—to my good colleagues on the other side—are Australian jobs. That is what we are exporting. We should be exporting cars but instead you are going to export the jobs—just like you will later on with the emissions trading scheme. I wonder how George Campbell is feeling today. I wonder how he is going, sitting back, thinking: ‘Gee, haven’t things changed. Haven’t things got tougher since I left. Haven’t they done a great job looking after the Australian workers since I left there.’ Since George Campbell has left here, we have had the Right of the Labor Party overtaking and walking all over the Left. The Left do not exist; they just turn up to make up the numbers. They do not even have the courage or conviction to clearly display in this chamber what they know and believe to be right. They are absolutely being walked over. That is a shame because, as they are being walked over and do not have the courage and conviction to stand up and go in to bat for their people, it is their people—the working families of both Victoria and South Australia who work in the manufacturing plants—whose jobs are definitely under threat by this.

A clear example of that is the stresses that are on the manufacturing industry at the moment. They are just holding on by their nails to keep this industry in Australia. And the government talk in pipe dreams of things that might happen in the future. They say, ‘We will produce a hybrid car and we will do this and we will do that and the world will be rosy.’ But, right now, they are putting this tax on them—right now! This is the peculiarity that we have.

In this policy, which now looks like a shambles, we in the National Party will be party to an amendment, even though we completely disagree with the whole concept. If the Labor Party has a policy to push you out of a completely reasonable plane, we will then have to move an amendment to wear a parachute. Moving an amendment to wear a parachute does not mean that we agree with the concept of going out of a perfectly decent plane. Our amendment will be nice and simple. All these other amendments are more complex than Kafka’s palace. They are incredible—something to behold. Our amendment will be moved by Senator Williams and Senator Abetz. It will basically say that if a car is $90,000 or less it is exempt from the increase in the tax.

It will mean something to the people who live in towns like Tamworth, Inverell and Roma—irregardless of whether or not they own rural land, irregardless of whether they are a contractor on a farm or the owner of a farm, irregardless of whether they are making the fences on the farm or they own the farm, irregardless of whether they are mustering cattle on the farm or whether they own the place—because we do not want to divide communities down the middle. We want to try to keep them together. (Time expired)