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

Shut what down?

Senator O'Neill interjecting—

No, you don't understand, Senator. You've only been here for a minute. You wouldn't understand that the premise to the shutdown of the manufacturing industry all occurred when Senator Carr was the minister. Senator Carr did nothing and eventually the car manufacturing industry ground down to a halt. And what did that? It was the fact that Senator Carr, as industry minister, did absolutely nothing to help the motor car building industry, the same as he and his party in government did absolutely nothing to help with a sustainable shipbuilding industry into the future. All they could do was complain about Australia not having a shipbuilding industry. They were in government for six years and did not build one ship—they did not even think about building one ship—and did nothing to support the car manufacturing industry and both of them failed. But, since the Liberal-National Party has been in charge, the number of people directly employed in the manufacturing sector in Australia is now almost a million workers. I repeat: 93,100 new manufacturing jobs have been created in just the last 12 months—something that never occurred when Senator Carr and the Labor Party were in charge. More than one million jobs have been created since the Liberal-National government was elected back in 2013.

Senator O'Neill interjecting—

I hear Senator O'Neill shouting about some state election recently, but she never answers the fact that one million new jobs have been created in Australia since the Liberal-National party government was elected.

Senator O'Neill interjecting—

You're right: we don't create the jobs. What we do is create facilities and the parameters so that private industry can invest and can create jobs that are great for Australian workers, because we are the party that is interested in the workers in Australia. We're not the party that only looks after the union bosses and the heavies in the union movement. We are the party that actually creates jobs for the workers in Australia.

Senator O'Neill interjecting—