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

They do not care about high-skilled jobs in this country. They never have and they never will. Look at the pomposity and arrogance from this government. They are not concerned about what happens to high-skilled jobs in this country. Four thousand high-skilled jobs in the shipbuilding industry will go down the tube because of the incompetence and uncaring view of this government.

It is not only skilled jobs in the shipbuilding industry. Look at Toyota and Holden. They chased them out of this country. They told them to pack up and go away. The University of Adelaide has estimated that closing the motor vehicle industry will mean 200,000 job losses in this country. It will mean the loss of 98,500 jobs in Victoria and 24,000 jobs in South Australia alone. Forgacs, that shipbuilding company in Newcastle, will now be reduced to zero jobs by Christmas this year.

You have to look at what this government is all about. They want to send the jobs overseas. The submarines will be sent to Japan. We all know that a deal has been done to send the jobs to Japan. We all know that the senators from South Australia in here were absolutely mute about that issue for weeks. They did not have the backbone to stand up for jobs in their own backyard. From what I hear, the coalition members in the Newcastle and Hunter region are equally as mute, equally as jelly backed and equally as weak kneed as those MPs and senators down in South Australia.

What has this government got against high-skilled jobs that allow Australian workers and Australian tradespeople to access the middle class of this country? Why are they determined to hollow out the middle class of this country? Why are they determined to send jobs to China? Why are they determined to send jobs to Japan? Why are they determined to send jobs to Korea, when we should be building the ships and building a manufacturing base in this country?

This coalition are not to be trusted. They said they would build 12 submarines in South Australia and they have reneged on that deal. They are sending those submarines to Japan; we know that full well. They have misrepresented their position. They have lied to the Australian public. They should be held to account for that.

At the moment, we are seeing this hollowing out of manufacturing jobs. They come here and they say, 'We've got these great trade agreements.' We heard the spin being put on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement by the acting minister here just after question time. But that free trade agreement means that there will be a movement of skilled workers from China to Australia at a time when shipyard workers and vehicle workers are losing their jobs. This is economic madness.

This is a mob who wrap themselves in the Australian flag every chance they get. But when it comes to doing something about maintaining jobs so that we have got the independence to build our Defence acquisitions in this country, they run away from it. They do not wrap themselves in the flag. They send the jobs to Japan. They send the jobs to China. They do not stand up for this country. They are an absolute disgrace. They are untrustworthy and they should be thrown out at the earliest chance we can get to do it. (Time expired)