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

(Victoria—) (): Manufacturing jobs actually matter to this government, just as they matter to the families of a better part of a million Australians. This is not the time to be playing political stunts at the expense of workers or to be seeking to take advantage of workers who are facing job losses. It is a time to provide confidence and support and to assure workers that we are able to manage this period of adjustment. That is how we were able to weather the global economic crisis and why we find that this economy is in much better shape than just about anywhere else in the OECD. If we had listened to the coalition, if we had listened to Senator Abetz, there would be 200,000 fewer workers because not only did the coalition oppose our spending measures but even today, on the third reading of the R&D tax bill, they sought a division to demonstrate their opposition, to demonstrate their hostility, to modernisation. (Time expired)