Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

This report on the Defence Materiel Organisation is so important in the context of the situation we are facing in South Australia at the moment. We have a government that has done a deal with the Japanese government to build submarines in Japan and that has, by taking that approach, abandoned the work force and the community of South Australia. This is during a period when South Australia has the highest unemployment rate in the country—7.3 per cent. They have not yet felt the effects of this government's killing off of the car manufacturing sector in this country, and now more jobs are being sent overseas from the submarine project.

I want to indicate how important this submarine project is. According to the Economic Development Board of South Australia, 3,000 Australian jobs will be created every year over the 40-year life of the project if it is built in Australia. How ridiculous it is for the Prime Minister to make another captain's call and hand this project to the Japanese. This is absolutely outrageous. We see bickering and backstabbing in this incompetent coalition. When Senator Edwards belatedly stands up for his own state, belatedly stands up for jobs in South Australia, what happens to him? He is accused of lying by his own frontbench.

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

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. I have had a look at this report and I cannot see anything in it—perhaps I am reading the wrong one—about the Defence Materiel Organisation that would in any way justify Senator Cameron's contribution.

Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the point of order, Mr President: as you know, in taking note of documents you have historically, as have other Presidents in the past, allowed a wide-ranging discussion.'

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

It has to be relevant to the report, though.

Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I suggest it is, in the context of the way we have these discussions when we take note of documents. Mr President, you have ruled that way, appropriately, in the past and I encourage you to do the same again.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Macdonald, you do raise a valid point of order but also Senator McLucas has summed it up correctly, that traditionally these debates have been wide-ranging. However, the debate must be constrained around the subject matter. Senator Cameron is relevant to the topic at this point. Senator Cameron, be very careful about your accusations, also, in relation to other senators. In the last few days accusations and implications have been made about senators and about truthfulness, and we need to be very careful that implications are not directed towards senators or groups of senators.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the point of order, Mr President: I would ask you to go through Hansard and look at my comments in relation to the submarines and Senator Edwards. You will not find that I have in any way accused Senator Edwards of lying.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is not a point of order, Senator Cameron. I have indicated to you that you can continue your remarks—you are being relevant in the context of this debate but I have issued a warning about being very careful about reflections on senators. That goes for all senators.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I certainly would not wish to reflect on any senator in this place. All I am doing in my contributions is outlining the backbiting, the infighting and the backstabbing that is going on in the coalition party room over the issue of submarines. In terms of defence materiel, this would be the biggest defence materiel project ever in this country.

Senator Ian Macdonald interjecting—

It is absolutely no wonder that Senator Macdonald is on his feet trying to close this debate down, because this is a huge embarrassment for an already embarrassed government, for an already incompetent government, for a government that is so arrogant that it thinks it can continue to run the rhetoric that has seen losses in Victoria and a massive change of government in Queensland—unheard of—but it still wants to run this rhetoric of sending jobs overseas and of privatisation. The public do not accept the position of the coalition in relation to these issues. It is not me and it is not the Labor Party that are accusing Senator Edwards of lying. It is the coalition's own party leadership and their own frontbench. It is not the Labor Party. In fact, we have been in here defending Senator Edwards for belatedly seeing the need to defend jobs in South Australia.

I take the view that jobs are important. The Defence Materiel Organisation can play a role in creating jobs in this country. When, under the coalition, this country has the highest unemployment rate it has had for 20 years, we need every job we can get, and we should not be handing the submarine build to the Japanese because of a captain's pick by a beleaguered Prime Minister, a Prime Minister who does not even have the confidence of his own backbench, and by a coalition government in disarray—a coalition government that is not trusted by the Australian public.

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

The report from the Defence Materiel Organisation, as usual, is a good one. It does highlight some issues. I was trying to get Senator Cameron to refer to the page in the report that he was speaking about. Of course, he did not, because, even though he has been here for a while now, he never seems to bother following the rules of the Senate, which are there for a reason and which should be followed.

One of the difficulties that the Defence Materiel Organisation have experienced, which they refer to, is the cost of doing business in Australia. The carbon tax imposed by the Labor government, which Senator Cameron and the Greens were part of, simply made manufacturing in Australia uncompetitive, and that included defence manufacturing. It is so sad that a party like the Labor Party, which is supposed to be looking after the workers, did so much to destroy workers' jobs and send jobs overseas. That is one of the problems for the defence industry and the Defence Materiel Organisation: procuring manufacturing activity in Australia was made so difficult because of the additional costs of doing anything because of the Labor Party's carbon tax.

Under the Labor Party's carbon tax and under the watch of Senator Kim Carr as industry minister, we know that the Australian car industry was shut down. It became entirely uncompetitive. Through evidence given to the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, we know that the unions are jobs' worst enemy in Australia. The corruption in the trade union movement, of which Senator Cameron and the senator from Far North Queensland are a part of—they are all ex-union people—

Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about me?

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

And you too—you are part of the union movement. If you are in the Labor Party, you do not get into this chamber unless you have been able to heavy some union into supporting you in getting a job in this place. You never would have got a decent job anywhere else. But the unions put you in here, and you are here to look after the union movement.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Through the Chair, Senator Macdonald.

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

I should be saying this through you, Mr President. But I am diverting from the Defence Materiel report, to which I am speaking. I again make the point that the corruption you see in the trade union movement impacts upon the costs of doing business in manufacturing in Australia. And that is why, as the Defence Materiel Organisation points out, there have been some difficulties in giving defence industries the support that we would have hoped for.

I do not want to prolong the Senate today, but I simply say that Senator Cameron's interpretation of the report—which I know he has not read and which he is speaking to today without any indication of what is actually in the report—makes my argument. The reason it is so difficult for any defence industry activity in Australia is that the Labor Party imposed a carbon tax that sent Australian jobs overseas. That was quite obvious in the defence area, and, in fact, in any area, because our competitors overseas did not have those sorts of imposed costs and they do not have a corrupt trade union movement, as we do—which the royal commission has clearly evidenced. Those sorts of things make it very difficult for Australia to have a manufacturing industry, make it very difficult for Australia to do what we want to do in the defence materiel area. So I would just urge Senator Cameron, when he speaks on these things, to understand what the real problem is with industry support in this country. It is the Labor Party. (Time expired)