Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

After listening to the diatribe from Senator Ronaldson, is it any wonder Senator Carr would not find any joy or any reason to go and talk to Senator Ronaldson about jobs or industry policy? He spent 20 minutes saying that the unions are the problem, giving the history of the Labor Party—history that is just not true—and attacking individual senators. There was not one word about the way forward for Australian manufacturing. That is because Senator Ronaldson does not care. Do you know why Senator Ronaldson did not have the fortitude or the gall to look at this issue properly? It is because he does not understand manufacturing. He did not stand up for workers in Victoria. He did not say one word in support of manufacturing jobs in Victoria when jobs were disappearing under his government's watch.

Why would anyone with any sense go to Senator Ronaldson to get a view in relation to workers? If any worker in Victoria had been listening to that diatribe and hoping that the government would provide some support for their jobs, it was missing in that 20-minute contribution from Senator Ronaldson. All the false anger that Senator Ronaldson is so famous for in this place was on show; all the manufactured concern from Senator Ronaldson was on show. We had Senator Birmingham chipping in from the sideline, but there was not one word from Senator Birmingham in support of jobs in South Australia when it mattered—not one word of support for the workers in South Australia. Going back to Mark Latham to try and prove a point in this place is really the pits. That is really digging down to the bottom.

Senator Ronaldson, maybe you should take some advice from a politician—Dr Sharman Stone. She really showed you lot up. She was prepared to stand up for her community. I do not agree with everything Dr Sharman Stone has said in the past, but I do agree with what she has said about this government. She said that this government was lying. I have never heard a politician be so up-front about the position taken by a Prime Minister in this country—saying that he was lying. And that is the truth. We have not heard any rebuttal of Dr Sharman Stone from anyone on the other side of the chamber. What was he lying about? He was lying about what Dr Sharman Stone said was blackening the character of SPC workers. What do those opposite do? They have a political problem to deal with and they go back to Liberal Politics 101: blacken the name of workers and blacken the name of unions who represent them.

The coalition senators on the speaking list for this debate include, first, Senator Ronaldson, who demonstrated absolutely no capacity to understand the industry or to provide an answer to any of the problems facing the industry. He did not have anything for workers in the future—nothing, not one positive initiative. Next on the list is Senator Mason. I have never heard Senator Mason talk about manufacturing in this place, but I know what Senator Mason will be doing. He will be doing exactly what Dr Sharman Stone said the Prime Minister was doing to workers at SPC. He will be blackening the character of workers and he will be blackening the character of the trade union movement in this country.

Then we have Senator Back, someone else I have never heard make a positive contribution to policy in this place—certainly not industry policy. This is the politician who is saying that we should not have wind farms, who thinks that wind farms are creating a whole lot of disease around the country. If ever there were an area where we should be creating new jobs, surely it is in renewable energy. That is what is happening all over the world. But Senator Back comes in here to lecture us—the person who, with no scientific basis, thinks that wind farms are destroying lives, destroying people's health. I will tell you what he will lecture us about. He will do the same thing as Senator Ronaldson. There will not be one positive argument for industry policy or one example of what this government can do. It will be all about blackening workers—trying to blame the workers for the problems of the international economy, the problems of the national economy and, in some cases, the problems at their workplaces. It will be all about blackening the unions. Then we have got two whiz-bangers on industry policy—Senator McKenzie and Senator Williams. The Nationals are coming in to talk about jobs in manufacturing. Again, that will be about blackening the names of workers, who are trying to look after themselves, their families and their communities.

We know what this is all about. Senator Ronaldson's performance was absolutely pathetic, but given the line-up that we have got after him I suppose he was about the best we can expect. What has happened here is a triumph of ideology over the national interest and it is a triumph of market economics—we will just let the market rip and everything will be okay. It is about having no or only a limited role for government—trying to deal with all issues at the macroeconomic level but ignoring the plight of families in this country.

I do not think there would be too many coalition MPs who have ever been made redundant. Most of them have had a fairly privileged upbringing; they have come through university; they have worked in a parliamentarian's office and they have ended up in parliament—many of them, but not all of them. They do not know what it is like to go home and tell their family that they have lost their job. They do not know what it is like to wonder how they will pay the mortgage. They do not know what it is like to tell their children that they cannot look after them with a holiday or with some presents at Christmas. They do not know what that is like, and that is why they treat jobs in manufacturing with complete disrespect and disdain. And that is why at a time when manufacturing jobs are disappearing around this country you can have a senior government minister stand up and talk for 20 minutes without one idea or one approach to help workers in trouble. Quite frankly, they do not care. It is about ideology and macroeconomic issues. They do not want a role for government and they do not want a role for industry policy. They do not want a role for partnership between government and business. That is what is happening all over the world: governments are partnering with business, because we have gone through a global financial crisis, and countries and businesses are in trouble, and their governments say, 'We will help.'

The lot over there, however, is putting ideology before national interest and ideology before jobs. What they want is for this country to be no more than a quarry, a farm and a tourist destination. That is it: that is where the job growth is going to be, according to them. That is what you will do in the future. We had Mr Pyne, the Minister for Education, giving us all a bit of education on Adelaide radio the other day. I would say to anyone who is listening in, listen to what Minister Pyne said—one of the most senior ministers. He basically said, 'I am going on a committee to fix this up.' There will be a committee that Mr Pyne is on and that does not fill me with enthusiasm or confidence—a committee looking after jobs in this country. What a thought that is! The other thing that is going to happen to all the thousands of manufacturing jobs that are being lost in Adelaide is those workers will be sent into the desert to work for BHP at a mine. A 55-year-old female production worker from a manufacturing plant in Adelaide is going to up stakes, go out into the desert and work for BHP. Well, it does not work that way.

In Canada, the conservative government understands that we have come through a global financial crisis and that there is a need for the government to intervene and help maintain industry. As Senator Carr—one of the best industry ministers we have ever had—said in his speech, the Canadian government gave $500 million to the industry to keep it going—to get it over a problem. They did that because they know what happens when workers lose their jobs and when communities are under stress. When people lose their job, they have financial hardship: Many of them end up with family break-ups and perhaps health consequences, mental health issues, alcohol abuse, family finance problems and intergenerational unemployment. That is what governments try to avoid at all costs, and yet a senior minister from the coalition government can stand up here for 20 minutes and rave on about nothing positive—not one policy. It was an ideological and political barrage with no content and no substance.

Senator Ronaldson will probably be their best speaker, given what is coming behind him. Yet his speech had no substance, and so it is all downhill from here on in. To those listening in the gallery, I urge you to stay for the coalition speakers—