Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I should be saying this through you, Mr President. But I am diverting from the Defence Materiel report, to which I am speaking. I again make the point that the corruption you see in the trade union movement impacts upon the costs of doing business in manufacturing in Australia. And that is why, as the Defence Materiel Organisation points out, there have been some difficulties in giving defence industries the support that we would have hoped for.

I do not want to prolong the Senate today, but I simply say that Senator Cameron's interpretation of the report—which I know he has not read and which he is speaking to today without any indication of what is actually in the report—makes my argument. The reason it is so difficult for any defence industry activity in Australia is that the Labor Party imposed a carbon tax that sent Australian jobs overseas. That was quite obvious in the defence area, and, in fact, in any area, because our competitors overseas did not have those sorts of imposed costs and they do not have a corrupt trade union movement, as we do—which the royal commission has clearly evidenced. Those sorts of things make it very difficult for Australia to have a manufacturing industry, make it very difficult for Australia to do what we want to do in the defence materiel area. So I would just urge Senator Cameron, when he speaks on these things, to understand what the real problem is with industry support in this country. It is the Labor Party. (Time expired)