Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

It really is, as Senator Fifield says, quite bizarre. It is an act of economic stupidity and long-term vandalism to the rightful inheritance of the next generation of Australians. When Labor make these economically irresponsible decisions there are flow-on consequences. And, of course, the flow-on consequence for car dealers was that they found themselves in real strife. That is what happens. Once you start unsettling one part of the economy, there are flow-on consequences. Therefore, a mechanism was needed to assist the car dealers. That mechanism was established with the great announcement and great fanfare of the $2 billion OzCar fund. We now know, courtesy of Senate estimates—and it was never issued by way of press release—that although the $2 billion was announced with great fanfare, it shrank to $850 million, and we think it is now down to $450 million. There was no further discussion by way of media releases as to that, but we found that out.

We have also found out that OzCar, the special purpose vehicle facility, would not be in existence but for the need of Ford Credit, for which the parameters of the original OzCar were substantially changed. Indeed, the incontrovertible evidence is that, but for Ford Credit’s needs, OzCar would not even have been established. What was the importance for Ford Credit? Very simply, Ford Credit provides funding to the car dealerships which, not surprisingly, sell Ford motor vehicles. If the car dealerships that sell these vehicles cannot exist, there is then—and this is interesting—a knock-on effect to Ford manufacturing in this country. Therefore, this facility is needed, and we support the government in establishing the facility and expanding the parameters to allow Ford Credit into the scheme, something which it was not designed for originally. These are the flow-on, knock-on consequences of the irresponsible decisions which Labor has taken.

There has been some questioning around the issue of Ford Credit’s involvement in the OzCar scheme, and I want to place a few statements of fact on the record. But, first, I want to deal with a number of smokescreens that have been put up. Firstly, there has been a deliberate campaign by Labor to suggest that the opposition created a fake email. There is no evidence, and, might I add, it is a completely false assertion. Are we actually to believe that somebody from the opposition, on the evidence known, broke into Treasury to create it on a Treasury computer? That is fanciful stuff. I know there have been a number of journalists anxious to ask me questions. Given that it was created on a Treasury computer, I just wonder why they do not ask Mr Rudd and Mr Swan, ‘Do you believe that somebody from the opposition actually went in there to create this fake email?’or whether he will now apologise. I think we know what the answer will be. They will not even bother to ask Mr Rudd that question, unfortunately. The second point and the second smokescreen is that the whole case of the opposition against Mr Swan was based on the email. Can I simply say that that email bore no relationship whatsoever, in any way, shape or form, to the allegations that still stand firm against Mr Swan—and they remain very firm.

I will make some other observations, especially in relation to my friends in the media who, all of a sudden, seem very interested in me: some of your members have been willing to risk imprisonment for not revealing their sources. It is a matter of great honour to them, yet they apply a completely different standard to the opposition when the opposition says, ‘We will not reveal our sources.’ It is interesting. Remember when Mr Rudd was going on about the Australian Wheat Board and he had cable after cable leaked to him?