Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I have what I hope is a final follow-up question. With respect to the minister, he has fundamentally failed to answer the question. The point is this: does the minister say that, if we put government funds into a particular industry assistance program—loans, grants, export incentives—it can be quantified, it can be modelled? In broad terms, economic activity, increases in tax receipts, increases in employment and the multiplier effect? And if we did do that, the counterfactual is this: if, in the context of the auto sector, where the Bracks review and Professor John Spier are saying that upwards of 200,000 to 250,000 jobs could be lost by the end of next year, what the cost is to the community of the unemployment, increased levels of crime and increased levels of violence? By having a targeted approach to government assistance can we at least quantify whether we are getting good value for money for that, which of course means we can then do a comparator with these tax cuts? That is where I am and, hopefully, that can be the end of it.