Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy President. As a fellow Victorian senator, I know the automotive industry is incredibly important to our state's economy, as Senator Collins also knows and as Senator Carr, who is now leaving the chamber, should recognise. The coalition has been committed to a vibrant and sustainable automotive industry, which is why we instigated a Productivity Commission inquiry and which is why we are committing to a billion dollars worth of funding and another billion dollars after 2015. That is not an insignificant sum. But we cannot control what occurs in foreign boardrooms. GM's chairman, Dan Akerson, states from Detroit that a range of factors were to blame for their global restructure—so it has not hit just our domestic industry; it has hit other nations' industries. Mr Akerson says that 'the decision to end manufacturing in Australia reflects the perfect storm of negative influences the automotive industry faces' in Australia. The reality is that under the former minister, Senator Carr, 100,000 fewer cars were made. The carbon tax hit was put on our manufacturing industry, and you cannot say that is an insignificant amount of money or cost burden to your business, particularly if you are in manufacturing.

But I think the one that takes the cake—and Senator Ronaldson actually referred to it in his answers to the questions asked of the government by the opposition—was the $1.8 billion hit to this industry made, without consultation, I might say, around the fringe benefits tax hit made by the former government and hoisted onto the automotive industry, with no consultation. So, as for them coming in here and hypocritically carping from the sidelines that somehow the government is responsible for this or is attempting to drive Holden—GM—out of Australia, we would prefer that Holdens were being driven right around Australia. That is what we want to see: Australian-made cars being purchased by Australians and being driven on Australian roads. But because of the perfect storm of the high Australian dollar and the high cost of doing business—you don't like to hear it; you don't want to talk about the commission of audit; you don't want to talk to the Business Council—the reality is—and talk to anybody here or overseas—that trying to run a business in Australia at the moment is incredibly difficult. They are the first ones to say that there is a high cost of doing business in this country and that it is actually costing these jobs, combined with the low demand for the actual product. You put all that in together and it is unsustainable. So for them to sit here and point the finger is beyond a joke.

The reality is we are committed to research and development in this area. I think of Geelong and of the work done with the automotive industry and with a variety of our universities. It is key to it. I think the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce commentary on how this decision in a foreign boardroom impacts on our local economy and our local community is significant. The Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce is working in Victoria particularly with those small to medium enterprises that are going to be affected by this. The Napthine government is convening a roundtable next Wednesday to discuss the Victorian automotive industry and to look at the industry, jobs et cetera.