Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

What I would say to Senator Milne is: do not misquote Toyota when they have put it fair and square on the high Australian dollar—the first issue raised in their media release—and the second issue was the cost of manufacturing and, as I was able to point out in a Sydney Institute speech recently, a change to their workplace agreement which would not see one extra red cent spent by the company and the workers not taking one red cent less home—in other words, wages being maintained—where they could have put an extra 2,000 working days onto the factory floor each and every year. Now, that might have done something to the cost of manufacturing. But when that was tried, the union intervened to stop the workers having a say on whether or not they could vote for the protection of their own jobs.