Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

I will come to that, Senator Farrell, because we saw a pretty strong demise under your mob. So we will come to that. I appreciate the innovation from the industry, I appreciate the employment and the jobs and I appreciate the social impact. I grew up not far from the Holden plant in Adelaide. I went to school in the neighbouring town. My parents still live there. I know that part of Adelaide well. I know that right now, even with Holden operating, it has youth unemployment in excess of 40 per cent and that, if Holden were to close, a terrible situation in that part of Adelaide would only get worse. So I fully appreciate that there are serious consequences from this debate and from the decisions that General Motors out of Detroit and Shanghai will ultimately make about whether or not they continue to operate a business in Australia. I want Holden to stay. I want those jobs to stay. I want all employers to stay. But we have to accept that the way governments have been going about this—the so-called co-investment approach and the blank cheque approach that those opposite might advocate—has not been working.

We seem to have a complete whitewashing of history from those opposite. There seems to be no acknowledgement of the fact that during their six years in government Mitsubishi closed its Australian operations and Ford announced it was closing its Australian operations. Two of the four—50 per cent of the car manufacturers in this country—decided in the Labor Party's term of government to close down. Very clearly, the policies that were being applied previously were not working to keep jobs and this industry in Australia. When Labor took office there were some 335,000 cars produced every year in Australia. By the time they finished it was down to 221,000. When they took office there were 200 businesses operating in the automotive sector. Now there are fewer than 150. Twenty-five per cent went out of business on Labor's watch. So do not come in here, Senator Marshall, Senator Farrell or anybody else, with some sanctimonious lecture about how the industry must be saved, because huge tracts of this industry left on your watch and the erratic policymaking of those opposite did absolutely nothing to help. The on-again, off-again approach—'We'll have a Green Car Innovation Fund, then we'll cut it not once but twice, and then we'll axe it altogether and take out around $1.2 billion in funding that had been promised'—generated and delivered a level of uncertainty in the car industry that obviously impacted on decisions made by those global businesses about whether it was worth staying in Australia.

Add to that the increased cost of doing business and the impact of the carbon tax—around $460 million across the automotive sector—and then, at the eleventh hour of the government, the announcement of the new fringe benefits tax, a $1.8 billion tax slug across the entire car sector. All of those factors contribute to making the entire economy a more expensive place to do business, where all Australian businesses face increased costs and it becomes so much harder for any of them to justify staying open and continuing to employ Australians. That is why we want to get the cost base for doing business in Australia down for every single business, and it is why the Labor Party would be well advised, if they care about jobs, to get out of our way and to allow us to enact the policies we promised, which will make it cheaper for people to do business in Australia.

To give Senator Carr—who comes in here with great hysterics and theatrics on a regular basis to rant and rave about the manufacturing sector—one iota of credit, at least when he wrote his book recently he acknowledged that the previous government's policy failures had an impact. As he said in that book:

Unfortunately the Green Car Innovation Fund was abolished, leaving international company executives wondering just what they had to do to get a consistent government policy commitment in Australia.

That was Senator Carr reflecting on the governments in which he served; on the governments in which, for the bulk of the time, he was the industry minister; and in the governments that saw 50 per cent of Australia's car manufacturers decide to leave and 25 per cent of Australia's automotive industry components suppliers shut up shop. That is the track record of the previous government. Let us not whitewash history and let us not pretend that the model that has been in place has been working because it has not. It has failed miserably to keep business in Australia and it has failed miserably to protect jobs. If we are to have any chance of protecting jobs in future we very clearly need to take a different approach.

We were elected to government being very clear about the approach that we would take. We were open and honest in saying that we would go through a process with the Productivity Commission undertaking a thorough assessment of how the car industry should be supported if it is to stay in Australia. That Productivity Commission review is not one just looking at the quantum of money that might need to be available to keep the car industry here. It is worth noting there is a large quantum of money still on the table, some $1 billion on the table between now and 2015-16 and a further $1 billion on the table beyond that. There are big bucks on the table from government to support industry but the Productivity Commission's brief is a wide one: the national and international factors affecting the industry; the industry structure; the structure of investment; the profitability in the industry; the changes in consumer preferences; and indeed, the workplace practices and arrangements in place. All of those are factors that contribute to whether or not we can have a viable industry in Australia.

The Productivity Commission in looking at that will come up with a reasoned and considered analysis to identify how, if the industry stays in Australia and if government continues to so-called co-invest in the industry, to hand money over to the industry. We will get a situation where we are not handing over money simply to watch a continued demise because that is what infuriates many taxpayers and that is what disappoints people like me, where we put good money after bad and still watch the jobs walk out the door. That is what has been happening: good money thrown after bad and jobs still go.

It was not that long ago that the former Prime Minister and the Premier of South Australia were declaring that Holden was secure until 2022. Then we saw more job losses under your watch, Senator Farrell. The approach of the previous government simply saw more jobs leave, and we need a different approach if we are to get a different result in future. That is why Holden should be committing to stay put until at least the Productivity Commission process is complete. Let us see then—