Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

It is always interesting to sit back and listen to members of the Labor Party and their confected outrage, which is built up for nothing more than media appearances. The problem is that, when you speak in parliament, everything you say is recorded. As a result, everything you do not say in defence of an industry or an argument is not there. So when I say it is confected outrage I mean: where were the comments from the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Gorton—I will excuse the member for Gellibrand; he was not here—the member for Lingiari and the member for Wakefield when Mitsubishi pulled the pin in 2008?

A government member: What did they say?

There was silence, the sounds of silence, not just from the member for Wakefield but from all members. In 2011, the then Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, said:

Our nation is facing an historic shift, the like of which we have not seen in two generations.

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That does not mean that change will be easy or swift. These are incredibly challenging times.

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Many manufacturers have found the higher exchange rate extremely difficult to handle.

The face of the industry is changing, as indeed has been happening for many decades now. I feel very sorry for all those people who have lost their jobs to date or are to lose their jobs. I feel very sorry for the one person every 19 minutes in the manufacturing industry who lost their job while Labor were in government.

What can I say of this confected outrage of the Labor Party? I say this. I sat through when BHP shut down in Newcastle, that great big steel town—and BHP had reach across the whole region. It was disappointing. It was devastating. Yes, people lost their jobs. The coalition government, under John Howard, invested $10 million in a Newcastle structural adjustment package. That money was invested wisely, but, most importantly, the government sat down with industry, with the workers, and developed a plan. We now have lower unemployment in the Hunter region than we had when BHP was there. We have seen new industries, new growth, the establishment of the Hunter Medical Research Institute, a whole new sector of industries. We have seen an increase in broader education. We have seen mining support service industries pop up on a broad scale, the likes of which we have never seen. Why? Because we encouraged industry to invest. We sat down; we worked with them. We got rid of a lot of the backlog of red tape that was stopping this investment. People need to see a pathway forward. They need to see that a government cares enough to work with them, not against them. Most importantly, they need to see and understand that they do not have people with confected outrage.

I left out the member for Isaacs earlier, because he did not speak today, but he spoke on Q&A last night, and I have got to tell you, Member for Isaacs, it was not one of your most impressive performances. There you were, complete with the confected outrage, but what did you say about when Mitsubishi pulled the pin or when Ford announced its closure? Indeed, what did you say about when Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2012 announced $34 million for Ford, saying it would create 300 new jobs, only for 330 employees to lose their jobs, or when she announced $215 million for Holden, saying it would secure the future for Australia till 2022, yet within months 670 jobs were gone? It was the silence that was deafening from the members of the opposition when they were in government.

People need a team that will provide leadership, will create opportunities and, in particular, will create an air of confidence that businesses can invest. One of the things that helped kill this motor vehicle industry—and is killing other industries and is killing investment—is the carbon tax: $400 on every motor vehicle. But did I once hear a word from members opposite about the $400 of carbon tax on each and every car and the impact of that on the jobs and the supply? It was not there. So I say to these people: stop the confected outrage and work with people to create jobs.

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