Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. I am aware of reports in the media this morning where Senator Carr was quoted as saying that for less than $150 million a year he knew that we could save the car industry. If he knew that, why didn't he sign the deal? If he had that deal in front of him, why didn't he sign it? We know that, under Labor, Mitsubishi left Australia. Under Labor, Ford left Australia. And, of course, under Labor, the carbon tax and the fringe benefits tax came in. All of the chaos, dysfunction and uncertainty that Labor imposed on industry across the board has caused significant problems. We are dealing with the problems that we inherited from the Labor Party in a calm and methodical fashion. There is all of this background briefing by Senator Carr after the event—'If only we had another $150 million, we could have sorted it all out.' If it was so easy, why didn't you do it?