Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Even Senator Gallacher, in his interjections, would have to acknowledge that the automotive industry in South Australia and across the whole of Australia has been in a state of some decline for some period of time, exacerbated by the fact that we have had a high Australia dollar. The quantities of cars that are manufactured in South Australia are relatively small, so our capacity to have economies of scale in our production costs is obviously something that other countries can do a whole heap better than we can. We found ourselves in a situation a number of months ago—possibly even a couple of years ago, thinking back to exactly when the announcement first occurred—where we had a declining industry and unfortunately the inevitable did happen. A decision was taken by the manufacturers of Australian-made cars that they no longer intended to make cars in Australia. Let us be very clear about this. It was a decision of the manufacturers and it appears as if there was probably very little that anybody could have done whether it be the government that Senator Gallacher was a member of for six years between 2007 and 2013 or whether it was this government since 2013—

Senator Gallacher interjecting—

Senator Gallacher, it feels like you have been there forever.