Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

And it's in a marginal seat, as Senator Brockman says. Politics: 'We can't shut that business down. We've got to put in more capital. We've got to put more of your money into that business. We can't let those jobs go.' We've gone down this path before. Governments all over the world have gone down this path. It does not work.

The focus of government should be basically a focus on the investment environment. There are plenty of things we can do to make this country more productive and more attractive for capital investment in the manufacturing industry, and that's what we should be doing, not investing taxpayer dollars in the way proposed.