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

I think we want to look at what the people from the seat of Murray actually think about the suite of options available to them, Senator Carr in his former role put it on the table. He also put a whole other range of legislation options on the table—keeping the carbon tax, keeping the regulation that is strangling industry in this country. I tell you what, Senator Carr, as you leave the chamber: the people from the seat of Murray in my state voted en masse to get rid of your government, to get rid of those policies. It would be nice if the opposition and those having a crack today could get on board and get rid of one of the millstones on industry—particularly food manufacturing and processing in the regions—the carbon tax.

Senator Cameron, you talked of SPCA, and I might say your party had to be dragged kicking and screaming to initiate the safeguard action under the Productivity Commission and in relation to some of the strategies that the new management at SPC Ardmona had started to implement to get their company back on track. One of them was to address the international trade regime that their industry has been operating under, and it took a lot of effort, including from your own AMWU president at a state level, to get you guys on board. So do not come crying now that somehow we have been slow to act. You were ready to jump to attention for automotive workers at the time, but you were dragged kicking and screaming in relation to regional workers in the seat of Murray.

The Productivity Commission's safeguards inquiry identified the supermarket strategy as being an issue of concern for manufacturing and food processing in this country. We know that Senator Ludwig, in his previous role, tried to get a voluntary code together throughout the supply chain to get producers, processors and retailers on the same page to start to address some of those issues. But it was not Senator Ludwig who could come up with the solution; rather it was private industry. It was SPC Ardmona, it was Woolworths and it was Coles that responded to the very strong demand in the Australian community to back our local produce. Thank you to Coles and Woolworths for ensuring that 100 per cent of their product is now locally produced.