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

We discuss matters with every member of the innovation council on an ongoing basis. There is a meeting that is scheduled to be called and I understand that everyone who participates in that council is now available to attend. We have a process of deep consultation with the industry and we have an Australian steel industry trans­formation scheme, a program that you do not support, just as you do not support the Aus­tralian automotive transformation scheme and just as you are actually proposing to reduce support for Australian manufacturing. It must be a very difficult thing for you to suggest that you are interested in whether or not a meeting has occurred when you actually have a policy that would decimate Australian manufacturing and when you have no commitment to this industry.

When the schemes were introduced, Mr Truss told the House:

You cannot simply keep coming into this House, decade after decade, with another massive assistance package for the car industry.

That is the approach that you have adopted when it comes to assisting blue collar workers. That is the approach that we have seen time and time again. (Time expired)