Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I apologise, Mr Deputy President. It is my total inexperience in the chamber! I will soon pick up, I am sure!

Mr Deputy President, it is absolute gall of the opposition to be talking about manufacturing jobs when they ignored them for 11½ years—when manufacturing was being pushed to the side, manufacturing jobs were being exported, workers were losing their jobs, communities were being devastated and, when people tried to engage the Howard government, they were being told: ‘Go away. Let the market rip. Everything will be okay. We will continue to be a farm, a quarry and a tourist destination’. There was absolutely no vision for manufacturing whatsoever. Tens of thousands of jobs were lost in Victoria; tens of thousands of jobs were lost in New South Wales. Jobs were disappearing and all the opposition did was sit on their hands and hope that something magic would happen to allow the manufacturing industry to revive.

In elaborately transformed manufactures, the things that make an economy wealthy, our exports declined. We signed a free trade agreement with Thailand, and what happened? Our account deficit and trade deficit with that country increased, mostly in manufacturing goods. You had absolutely no idea what building a strong manufacturing sector was about. And without a strong manufacturing sector we will not survive as a front-line, modern community into the future. (Time expired)