Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Defence (Senator Johnston) to questions without notice asked by Senators Wong, Conroy and Carr today relating to the Australian naval manufacturing industry.

We learnt two things in question time today. Firstly, no-one in this government appears capable of keeping a promise. The second thing we noticed is that the South Australian Liberals are the doormats in the Liberal party room. We know, of course, that the National Party have long been the doormats in the coalition party room. But let's be really clear: there is no advocate on that side of the chamber and on the frontbench prepared to stand up for South Australian jobs. We saw that when it came to Holden and we have seen it again today.

Minister Johnston had a number of occasions today when he could have backed in the promise he made to South Australia on behalf of the coalition prior to the election. I invite Senator Birmingham, who is in the chamber—and I hope he will speak—to reassert the promise that was made in Adelaide before the election. I invite him to say the words, 'We will honour our pre-election commitment.' He has his head down, and I guarantee that he will not recommit the coalition to an election promise that they want to break. That is because it was an election promise they made because of politics only.

The sad thing is that we know how important the shipbuilding industry is to South Australia. We know how important this industry is to Australia. We know how important it is for Australia's manufacturing and technology sector. We know how important it is for jobs, advanced technical engineering skills and cutting-edge manufacturing technologies. All of the coalition appear to have taken the Joe Hockey line on everything: it is always someone else's fault. We hear excuse after excuse from the coalition about this issue. Frankly, the excuses just do not stack up. Rather than go into that, I think it comes back to one simple issue: before the election the then shadow defence minister went down to Adelaide and said, 'The coalition is committed to building 12 new submarines here in Adelaide.' What have we heard since? What have we seen in this and

other question times since? We have seen ducking and weaving, preparation for the breaking of yet another promise from a government that seems incapable of keeping any pre-election promise. I would say also that this comes on top of the way this government walked away from the auto industry across the country, which is going to have such devastating effects on the economy of South Australia.