Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

After years of coalition indifference to the need for innovative industry, Labor is investing heavily in helping industry to meet the challenges of innovation and new technology. Senator Carr is at the forefront of engaging industry to build the industries of the future for this country. What the coalition failed to do in 11½ years absolutely amazes me. We hear people on the other side talking about manufacturing, but for 11½ years they could not spell manufacturing. They did nothing about manufacturing. All they wanted to do was lazily rely on the growth of our export industries, primary produce and commodities.

After years of coalition indifference to innovative industry, the Labor Party will be investing in innovation and new technology for this country. After years of climate change denial from the other side, denial that does still run deep, Labor is acting on climate change. The coalition acts as if they bear none of the responsibility for the very serious challenge that this country faces. They want all the credit for the very little that they did, but no responsibility for the legacy that they actually left this country, a legacy of inactivity, a legacy of declining manufacturing jobs, a legacy of denial on climate change and a legacy of bad economic management. But they want none of the well-deserved blame for the mess that they have left behind.

As a Labor government we will tackle the issues that are so important for this country. We will tackle education, we will tackle innovation, we will build our industries and we will not ignore the need to develop a balanced economy that can produce goods that are manufactured by Australian workers. We will not neglect the schoolchildren of this country. We will make sure that they have a good education, an education that leaves them capable of engaging in both the Australian economy and the global economy. We will not neglect our industries. We will not neglect our nation. We will not neglect our people in this country. The record that the coalition crow about will be looked back on in years to come as a record of lost opportunity, a record of wrecking the opportunities that we had on the basis of economic rationalism and of punishing ordinary workers through Work Choices.