Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Xenophon for raising the critical issue of the government's duty of care. Senator Birmingham has come back into the chamber, and I listened to Senator Gallacher earlier, and the suggestion is that we can wipe the slate clean now—it is a new order and a new age, or, if you pick up Mr Hockey's comments, the age of entitlement is over. They completely neglect the government's duty of care. Immeasurable irresponsibility has been demonstrated in the way the Australian government has been dealing with industry policy not only in the automotive area but also in food processing. We continue to ask: where is there any consideration of the national interest?

Putting aside some of the cheaper rhetoric in Senator Ryan's speech, his contribution highlighted for me the debate that must be going on in the Liberal-Nationals coalition at the moment. Senator Ryan says we should call it a subsidy. I do not care whether you call it co-investment or subsidy; the point is that the government determines in the national interest to invest in activities that support the economy. I understand that in the Liberal Party there are some who think that there should be no government role at all. That debate is occurring in the coalition at the moment. The victims of that debate are starkly evident. As Senator Xenophon just pointed out, the situation while this government tries to sort out what its industry policy should be is diabolical.

Let us consider a few of the facts. For every one dollar of government support, Toyota currently spends at least $20 in its Australian manufacturing operations. That will go. Fifty thousand direct Australian jobs in the automotive industry will be lost because of this announcement and, as others have highlighted—Senator Gallacher particularly—200,000 jobs which rely indirectly on the automotive industry will also be lost. The impact on our economy of this government's approach to the automotive industry—and this is without thinking about food processing as well—is diabolical.