Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution to the motion of Senator Madigan and Senator Xenophon in respect of procurement in Australia. Noting that time is short for this debate, I will keep my remarks to a time limit so that others do have the opportunity to contribute to the debate. It is an important debate and, at the outset, I acknowledge the passion that Senator Madigan and Senator Xenophon have for Australian manufacturing and Australian businesses. It is important.

We in this government also have a responsibility in respect of procurement to get value for money. Value for money does not necessarily mean the lowest price and there are a range of inputs in our procurement policy, which is available to the community on the Department of Finance website. It does consider a range of things. But every dollar we spend more on products that we do not need to spend on particular items or products is more money we have to raise from Australian taxpayers. We are not spending government money; this is taxpayers' money we are spending and taxpayers' money we are dealing with.

The best way a government can assist Australian industry and business is to ensure that the economic fundamentals are strong, that we do not overburden industry with unnecessary tax and unnecessary red tape, that we do make sure that they are competitive in what is a global market. Australia is a trading nation and, I must say, Australian industry and Australian business does not just rely on the Australian market. That is a really important point to consider. To trade out, we need to be prepared to trade back in. If we want to send product overseas and into those broader markets—and that should be our aim—then we need to be prepared to accept product coming back the other way. To be competitive in that global market and on that global stage, we need to ensure that the economic fundamentals in this country are right.

Doing things like reducing red and green tape, which this government is doing, is important. Doing things like removing the carbon tax is absolutely vital. If you look at the paper industry, where 30 per cent of the cost of a piece of paper is energy, the impact of the carbon tax on the paper manufacturing sector is quite significant. It is one of the sectors of the economy that was most significantly impacted. When you look at the performance of the previous government, which basically saw a complete decay of the paper industry in this country, you can see the impact of their policy. You can see the fact that, despite the rhetoric that was delivered, the impact of Labor Party policy over the last six years has been very, very detrimental to the paper industry in particular.

I know the concerns of the paper industry, because I have seen the demise of two paper manufacturing plants in my home state, one in Burnie and one in Devonport. And while that process was going on, the previous administration completely and utterly did it. When Australian Paper made the announcement in 2009 that they were going to review the operations of the two plants in Tasmania, the then minister and the local member decided that they would get the local mayors and industry in to talk to them.

The minister at the time would not come to Tasmania; industry had to go to him in Melbourne. So on 6 March the five local mayors met in Melbourne. On that day and following that meeting, the minister—Minister Carr in fact at the time—announced that there would be an Industry Strategy Group established with the minister stating that the final report would be completed in June of that year, and that the strategy group would run in parallel with the company review, which was intended to be completed by the end of June.

The unfortunate thing is that the review was not even completed by December of that year and the company had already made the decision to close. So the information that was supposed to come out of the government's process was not available to the company. It is a clear demonstration that the policies of the Labor Party during the last election, including procurement policy, have not assisted industry despite taxpayers' funds being invested in the plant that Senator Madigan talked about in Tasmania for the development of the recycling plant—which is due to open very soon. I am sure that the people at the Maryvale mill are looking forward to that advancement and the company are as well.

The ICT regulations put in place by the previous government almost specify that business out of procurement. It really is very, very difficult and unfortunate that the economy has been left in such a mess by the previous government. The paper industry in particular has suffered very badly. And what did make it worse was the combination of the Labor Party and the Greens—the Greens who have done everything they can to destroy the forest industry in Australia with continued protest, continued campaigns. The work of the Labor Party in conjunction with the Greens, particularly during the last three years, has been quite devastating for the forest industry. And given that the forest industry is the base that provides the resource for the paper industry in Australia, that is very, very difficult.

But it is important that we receive value for money for Australian taxpayers out of Australian government procurement. As I said earlier, we are a trading nation and we need to ensure that trade is facilitated. If business is going to survive in the global market, it needs to be able to compete and work in the global market. So getting the fundamentals right, removing unnecessary tax and regulation, is a very, very important part. As Bill Clinton said when he was seeking the presidency, 'It's the economy, stupid.' We need to ensure that our business and our industry are capable of competing in the global market. We are operating in a global economy now. We cannot step off—