David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The opportunity to speak about the member for Makin's motion raises so many important points for Australian industry, Australian government, Australian employment and Australian manufacturing in particular. The value for money principle should apply in all government purchases. At the moment Australian government bodies are purchasing up to $40 billion worth of goods every year. It needs to be taken into account the added costs of production in Australia that are not imposed by inefficient business practices but by federal, state and local government regulation, red tape and industrial tape that binds the hands of private enterprise in manufacturing anything in this country. It is very difficult for private manufacturers when they tender for government contracts to be told they are marginally too expensive and the tenders are awarded to other non-resident businesses that can obviously produce things cheaper because they are not bound by the industrial tape, the red tape, the green tape, the local government tape, the state government tape and other taxes that we put on them like six per cent payroll tax in various states or the requirement for compulsory superannuation. This makes us a high-cost centre for many things. We have wonderful manufacturing businesses that still tender to government and miss out.

There is a refund that the federal government gets when it purchases goods from Australian manufacturing operations because it gets a return on PAYE tax, it gets a return on company tax profits and it avoids unemployment. Government contracts are huge contracts and deliver long-term stability to many manufacturing sectors of the economy. The concept of the federal Treasurer getting a rebate, the Minister for Employment or the Minister for Social Services not having to fund unemployment benefits or the minister for trade or any of the other ministries that assist government to retrain people—not paying if they are employing local bodies— (Time expired)

Debate adjourned.

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