Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That contribution by Senator Abetz really just demonstrates the absolute poverty of the position of the opposition in respect of this issue. For five minutes we heard Senator Abetz complain about the government having confidence in the manufacturing industry. The fact that we had confidence in the future of the manufacturing industry seemed to upset Senator Abetz so much that he felt he had to get up on his feet for five minutes and attack us for the audacity of having confidence in one of the major industries in this country—one that contributes over 10 per cent to Australia’s economy. How dare we have confidence in this economy! And I guess that demonstrates the position that the opposition used to have when they were in government. They did not care about the manufacturing industry. They did very little to support it. They never had a plan for anything. And they want to attack us because we have a plan, we have a strategy and we have a vision for the manufacturing industry.

We do not want to be part of a country that makes nothing. But that is what the previous government, the now opposition, set us on a course to achieve: to be a country with no plan, no vision, no strategy and no hope. That was their vision for Australian manufacturing, but it is not this government’s vision. We are proud of standing up for manufacturing and we are proud of the announcements that were made yesterday, specifically on the vehicle industry—and I will go through some of those in a minute. All the previous government did was to throw some token money at an industry. Did they say to the industry: ‘We want to help you develop into new technologies; we want to help you take the next step; we want to help you position yourself for the next decade, the next two decades, the next 50 years, for the sake of our kids’ jobs, for the sake of our industry, for the sake of working families’? No, there was none of that. It was simply a case of throwing a bit of money here and there, with no plan for the industry, no assistance. It was a pathetic response from them when they were in government, and what a pathetic response we just heard from Senator Abetz, attacking what is a most visionary plan—the comprehensive industry strategy plan that has been outlined by Senator Carr and is 100 per cent supported by the Prime Minister.

A New Car Plan for a Greener Future will provide $6.2 billion in assistance over 13 years. It will revitalise an industry that is critical to the Australian economy and the Australian community. It demonstrates the government’s commitment to manufacturing, its commitment to innovation and its commitment to providing Australia with high-quality, high-skill, high-wage jobs—something the previous government, the now opposition, represented by Senator Abetz, simply do not care about and have discarded. Their view of the industry when they were in government was that it had no hope—’Don’t worry about it.’ That was a shameful position and it was a shameful performance by Senator Abetz in this place today.

Labor’s New Car Plan for a Greener Future consists of a new, better-targeted, greener assistance program called the Automotive Transformation Scheme, which will run from 2011 to 2020 and provide $3.4 billion to the industry, not just as a handout but in strategic placement to generate investment to ensure that the car companies investing in this country invest in new technologies and place this industry—and place Australia, by placing this industry—at the forefront of technology and at the forefront of manufacturing. That is our vision—a vision that we wish was shared by the opposition.

Senator Abetz came in today and asked the question:

Does the minister agree that Australian manufacturing is expected to continue its historical decline over coming decades?

When the minister answered ‘no’, Senator Abetz was upset because there was previous Treasury modelling that indicated that there may continue to be some decline but that does not take into consideration the massive investment that we announced yesterday. We announced that because we have confidence and we are going to put in a plan to make sure that that historic decline, which happened under the previous government’s watch, does not continue. What did we see? Senator Abetz got up and said, ‘But it will continue.’ He was disappointed that this government does not share that pessimism. He was absolutely devastated that this government does not share that pessimism. He wanted to score a point by saying that we were wrong; we should be pessimistic about the industry. That is what he wants. That is what he sees as a victory because that is what he stood for when in government and that is what he stands for now as shadow minister for industry. It is a shameful performance and he should hang his head in shame. (Time expired)