Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Secondly, we have seen this false conspiracy about the Greens. Then they talk about the failure of jobs and growth. The problem with the government and jobs and growth is that they have had two years to do something about employment. When I listen to this government talk about jobs and growth, I close my eyes and ask, 'Who has been helped by this government?' Is it the auto workers at Holden and Toyota?

Opposition members: No!

Is it the refinery workers at Gove?

Opposition members: No!

Is it the shipyard workers in Williamstown and Newcastle?

Opposition members: No!

Is it the Alcoa workers in Geelong?

Opposition members: No!

Is it whole communities such as Queenstown on the west coast of Tassie?

Opposition members: No!

Is it the 100 dock workers at the Port Botany terminal who were sacked by text the other day?

Opposition members: No!

How does this government care about jobs? What does Senator Abetz, the minister for 'Work Choices lite', he of Dolce and Gabbana fame, have to say? He says, 'Fair enough. Why not sack people by text?' He wishes he had thought of it first.

If we want to talk about the lack of commitment to jobs of this government, let's have a look at renewable energy. Last year the world added 1.2 million jobs in the renewable energy sector. You might think, 'Fair enough. We must have got a portion of that.' No. We have gone back 13 per cent in the last year in renewable energy jobs. Only under this incompetent leader and his incompetent, divided administration could Australia go backwards on renewable energy jobs when the rest of the world is going forward. We know there is only one job that matters in Australia to this Prime Minister—his own.

The government talk about ChAFTA and attack Labor and tell scurrilous lies about Labor's opposition to it. We do believe in trade liberalisation. We do believe in the benefits and that it brings new markets. We get that. But a free trade agreement does not mean signing a blank cheque. By rushing into a free trade agreement, this government is planning to dud Australian workers. It is clear that when it came to land purchases which might be facilitated by ChAFTA this government held the line. They created a new standard. But when it came to labour and people, they sold them out in a heartbeat. They said, 'Don't worry about the fine print. We'll just trust everything. Let's get rid of the safety net. Let's get rid of labour market testing in these IFAs.' This is a government who we know care only about some jobs and not other jobs. Labor like all the upside of this agreement; we just not will not sign on to all the downside of this agreement.

This is a government who have no plan for workers and no plan for quality jobs. They have no plan for skills, no plan for schools, no plan for TAFEs, no plan for universities, no plan for research, no plan for manufacturing, no plan for renewable energy, no plan for good jobs and no plan to attract good jobs in the future. They have no plan except to save their own worthless jobs.

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