Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I thank senators for their contributions to this debate on the Automotive Transformation Scheme Bill 2009 and the ACIS Administration Amendment Bill 2009. I indicate to the Senate that this is an extremely important part of the government’s new car plan, which we are debating tonight. The Automotive Transformation Scheme Bill and the ACIS Administration Amendment Bill are core features of that plan. It supports the renewal and expansion of an industry we expect will provide high-skill, high-wage jobs by producing fuel-efficient, low-emissions vehicles. What this scheme has sought to do is provide the framework for the transformation of the industry and provide new opportunities for the industry to take full advantage of new opportunities that will emerge from the technological and structural revolutions that are occurring in a globalised automotive industry. Therefore, it is important to emphasise the place of the Australian automotive industry within an extremely complex and intensely international industry.

Australia is one of 15 countries throughout the world that can make cars from the point of conception through to the showroom floor. Senator Minchin made the point some years ago that many countries around the world would look at Australia’s place within the international automotive industry with great envy and would go to extraordinary lengths to have the industry that we have got. Our automotive industry is very much part of a global system in terms of the distribution of the technology, the capital and the skills. It employs, directly and indirectly, some 200,000 Australians.

Our industry is very competitive. Australian car firms compete against 63 brands in the market. Australian consumers can choose from 63 brands. In the United States there are something like 34 brands—and the last time I looked the Americans were reducing the number available. That market used to sell 17 million cars a year and we used to sell one million cars a year, but of course it is substantially different. This has to be seen in the context where our three motor vehicle manufacturers are part of global companies and each subsidiary is crying out for capital and investment. Ford has 50 subsidiaries around the world. Each one is seeking access to the extraordinarily limited and scarce capital. Toyota has 54 subsidiaries and General Motors has 34 subsidiaries. Each subsidiary is demanding access to that limited capital. These subsidiaries all compete, not so much against each other but against each branch within the corporation. Their efficiency is benchmarked against what actually occurs within the GM world, the Toyota world or the Ford world.

Australia has probably one of the most open and competitive automotive markets in the world. This package is vital to securing the future of automobile manufacturing in this country. As we speak investment decisions are being made around the world. I want to highlight that I cannot support Senator Milne’s second reading amendment because it would have the effect of stopping dead that investment, because it would place in doubt those investment decisions.

Our decisions tonight do matter for the 200,000 Australians who depend upon the automotive industry for their living. To delay the passage of these bills while waiting for regulations will serve no other purpose than to create uncertainty for the industry and its future at a time of unprecedented difficulty around the world. There will be the normal public consultations and the normal arrangements in regard to public scrutiny of regulations when they are made.

In relation to some of the points that were made by Senator Xenophon, this is an industry that is transforming itself. To suggest that we can undertake quantum leaps in the deployment of technologies outside of the market is to make a very serious mistake in playing with the future of many hundreds of thousands of Australians. To say, for instance, that we can move automatically from being able to produce very good combustion drive train vehicles to being able to produce full plug-in electric vehicles overnight is a mistake. There are three vehicles that we have just agreed can enter the Australian market. One of those vehicles, a Mitsubishi vehicle, is selling at the moment for $60,000. The equivalent petrol vehicle sells for about $17,000. The economics of what is being proposed just do not stack up.

We have to find technologies that are proven and that meet Australian needs and conditions. We have to be able to do this in a way that will transform the industry with technologies that are able to meet those terms and conditions. There is a lot of loose talk in the motoring pages of our newspapers and it often bears little relationship to the realities that the industry faces in this country.

I will discuss at greater length the details of Senator Milne’s amendments and Senator Abetz’s amendments at the committee stage of these bills. I understand that those amendments are likely to be carried. It is the government’s view that those amendments do not take account of the fact that these bills have already been amended. Senator Xenophon, in the House of Representatives amendments were made. It is simply not true to say that there are not extensive processes of accountability and declaration for the expenditure of public funds. The House amendments, which were initiated by the government, reinforce those arrangements and are already part of the bills we are voting on. We will deal with those matters in detail in the committee stage of these bills.

Question put:

That the amendment (Senator Milne’s) be agreed to.