Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Well, let's deal with one issue at a time. Mr Walton runs a fantastic union and is always focused on one thing in my experience, and that is creating good, well-paid jobs for his members. I'm sure that he will continue to do that as we rebuild manufacturing in this country.

Two things about your contribution, Senator McKenzie—you're conflating two things. We're dealing here with a piece of legislation that is going to see, for the first time in nine years, the rebuilding of manufacturing in this country. Perhaps I shouldn't repeat it again and again and again, but I will. I sat and watched in this parliament what you did to car manufacturing in South Australia at the Holden factory at Elizabeth. It was shameful. You hounded that company out of this country and you did the same in Victoria with Ford and Toyota. Let me tell you, there were plenty of workers who lived at Elizabeth—

Honourable senators interjecting—

Every country in the world subsidises their car industry, I might add. Every country in the world subsidises their car industry. You can't look at one industry.

What I was going to say to you, Senator McKenzie—and it will come as a shock—is that lots of those people who worked at Holden at Elizabeth actually lived in the country. They lived in the places like Kapunda, like Clare, like Freeling, like Balaklava. They might have been working in an outer Adelaide suburb, but they in fact were living in the country. They benefited from manufacturing. This fund will benefit people in regional Australia.

Can I say this: the corporation will strategically invest in higher value adding projects in priority areas. A number of these priorities have a strong regional presence, such as the value-add in resources, the value-add in agriculture, defence and renewables. It's anticipated that this will drive scale and growth, creating higher value jobs in regions. Investments, including the targeting of emerging opportunities, will help regional areas diversify their economies and workforce opportunities.

I saw over the period of the last two or three years what your government did to rural industries. Let's have a look at what you did to the barley industry, as a result of the bans by China. Let's have a look at what you did to the wine industry over that period of time. The Nationals claim—of course, the Nationals are not in government anywhere in the country, as far as can I tell. Is that right?