Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

Today's matter of public importance debate is yet another own-goal by the Australian Labor Party, concentrating on their greatest policy failure—namely, the economy. The unemployment statistics we are facing today are the residue—the flow-through—of six years of Labor-Greens dysfunction and incompetence.

Let us do a quick review of the unemployment statistics in this country. When we left government—I think it was in November 2007—there was a flow-through of about four months into the term of new Labor government. As a result of this flow-through, we saw unemployment continue to decline to 3.9 per cent in March 2008. Thereafter it steadily climbed. The coalition had, by the time it left office, got unemployment down below four per cent. We have now regained office, and the trajectory is heading north. In the May budget of last year—Labor's last budget—they predicted employment would be 5.75 per cent. They were budgeting for an increase in unemployment and a decrease in economic activity. In August last year, just before the federal election, Treasury put out a new assessment of unemployment. Between May and August, a period of three months, the predicted figure of 5.75 per cent had become 6.25 per cent. Unemployment went further north and economic activity further south.

So if there has been a loss of jobs—and indeed there has been—who predicted it would happen under their economic management? The Labor Party did. Yet Senator Cameron has the audacity to come into this place and say that this loss of jobs, which Labor itself budgeted for, is somehow the coalition's fault. I remind those listening that Senator Cameron used to be the national secretary of the AMWU, a union which unfortunately has a history of throwing up union bosses who have a unique capacity to ensure that they lose members their jobs. But it is not just me as a coalition minister who is saying so; former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating also said so in blaming Senator George Campbell, former secretary of the AMWU, for the loss of 100,000 manufacturing jobs in this country. You are not listening to coalition spin. You can accuse the coalition of all sorts of things, but Labor said similar things in talking about the loss of 100,000 manufacturing jobs.

Senator Cameron cried crocodile tears when he talked about Toyota and Holden. The closure of their manufacturing operations is a devastating loss to our nation—very, very disappointing. The workers who now face great uncertainty will be provided every assistance by my portfolio area to try to obtain alternative unemployment. During question time, the proposition was put to Labor: if the coalition are somehow responsible for the closure announcements by Holden and Toyota during the term to date of the new coalition government, who is to blame for the announcement by Mitsubishi and Ford of their closure during the Labor government's term? It was not Labor's fault! It must have been the coalition's fault as well, even though we were not in government at the time! The hypocrisy, the duplicity and the crocodile tears of the Labor Party are palpable, and the Australian people know it. That is why they rejected the Labor Party at the last election.

I am absolutely delighted that the Prime Minister made the title of the ministry he gave me 'Minister for Employment'. Employment is a fundamentally important social and economic activity. Government needs to create the right environment for job creation. A job is the best possible social security for any individual. We know the statistics: if you have a job, you and those in your household are likely to have better mental health, better physical health, better educational outcomes and better self-esteem. Trying to get people into jobs is the best possible social and economic policy of any government.

Having seen what Labor left us in the last budget, we said we would make jobs a top priority. That is why at the last election we developed Our plan—real solutions for all Australians to help increase employment. Our plan contained the abolition of the carbon tax which we predicted would absolutely destroy jobs in the manufacturing sector. More jobs are leaking from the manufacturing sector than from any other sector. Exactly that which we predicted is, unfortunately, unfolding before our very eyes. People are losing jobs in the manufacturing sector each and every day. Is it only because of the carbon tax? Of course it is not. But does the carbon tax make a difficult situation even worse? Absolutely it does—and everybody knows it, including those opposite. Yet when we put forward a proposal in this place to abolish the carbon tax, for which we got an absolute mandate from the Australian people in order to help create jobs, who stands in our way? The Labor-Green alliance in this place stands in our way. They are deliberately standing in the way of job creation in our nation. Senator Doug Cameron comes into this place proclaiming his support for manufacturing workers when he knows that the carbon tax he voted for—in breach of his election promise—is destroying jobs each and every day. Each and every day the carbon tax continues, more jobs will be destroyed.

In our plan to restore employment in the Australian economy we said, 'Get rid of the carbon tax.' We have got a mandate for it but those opposite, the Labor and Greens senators in this place, resent the decision of the Australian people and will stand in the way of this place giving expression to the will of the Australian people by abolishing the carbon tax. We also said we need to get rid of the mining tax, because we know the resources sector is beginning to flag, and flag very seriously. We need new projects. We need to create a willingness in the resource sector to explore in this country and develop new projects. We got a mandate to abolish the mining tax. Who stands in the way of job creation in that sector? Yet again, it is the Labor and Greens senators, who simply resent the decision of the Australian people to give the management of this nation to the coalition. We have said we wanted to get rid of red and green tape—and, yet again, no cooperation from the Labor and Greens senators in this place.

We have also said that, to get job creation happening, we have to stop the corruption, the thuggery, the intimidation and the delays on construction projects right around our nation, and therefore we have to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission—a policy we took to the 2013 election with a full three years notice. Yet again, the Labor-Greens alliance in this place, resenting the decision of the Australian people, refused to give us the opportunity of implementing our policy. Last time the Australian Building and Construction Commission was in place, there were literally billions of dollars of economic savings. Projects were coming in on time, on budget. The taxpayers' dollar was being driven so much further. We were getting more roads constructed for fewer dollars, we were getting hospitals built—more for less. Great economic drivers in a very job-rich sector.

But what does Mr Shorten want to do? He wants the construction sector to continue to be dominated by the CFMEU and the outlaw bikie gangs with which they associate. And, when confronted by this, the Labor Party's attitude is: 'Oh yeah, bikies wearing their leathers ain't a good look on these sites and in these protests. Why don't we just tell them not to wear their colours?' Forget about the characters wearing the colours, they can still go there! The characters can still go there and they can still intimidate—just as long as they don't wear their bikie colours. Really, this is Mr Shorten's vision for job creation in Australia!

We in the coalition are very serious about jobs growth. We put forward a comprehensive plan to the Australian people to grow jobs because we know the importance of jobs. It is fundamental for the household budget and for the independence of the family unit, and so vital for our future economic development, to be able to have a proper economy that underpins the services we want without having to borrow, day after day, thousands of millions of dollars from overseas—the legacy of the Australian Labor-Greens government that we are now patching up.

We had a plan. We have a plan. We put those plans to the Australian people and they endorsed those plans overwhelmingly. But what Senator Cameron did not tell us was where the biggest pockets of unemployment are. They are in the state of Tasmania and the state of South Australia. Now, I wonder what the common feature is between those two states. It would not happen to be the Labor-Greens government in Tasmania and the Labor government in South Australia? Well, yes it is. And that is why I hope the people of Tasmania and South Australia vote for job creation on 15 March by electing Will Hodgman and a majority Liberal government in Tasmania and Steven Marshall and a majority Liberal government in South Australia—so that we can work with all the states to help create the right environment for job creation. We need the states on board because this Senate, dominated as it currently is by Labor and Greens senators, simply will not allow this coalition government to implement its mandate and its plan to create jobs in this country—as I said, a plan which is vital for the social and economic development of this country, a plan that is designed to help this economy which is in transition.

Referring back to Senator Cameron's remarks, I was the shadow industry minister when Mitsubishi closed. I did not seek to throw stones at the Labor Party and blame them for it—because the company said, 'No matter what, we're leaving.' Ford said exactly the same. We did not blame Labor. Isn't it a pity that the Labor Party cannot adopt the same maturity and bipartisanship as we did when we were in opposition by acknowledging that, in a nation's economic history, certain unpalatable events occur for which a government cannot be blamed. The hypocrisy and duplicity that we witnessed at question time today! Of the four car manufacturers that this nation had, two closed under Labor, which was not at all Labor's fault; but then the next two closing under the coalition government is all the coalition's fault! I think it is that duplicity, that hypocrisy, and those crocodile tears, that tell you everything you need to know about how Labor is playing politics with jobs and job creation in this country. Labor blames us for job losses that were already well and truly in the pipeline but, most perversely, blocks the initiation of our policies that would allow jobs growth in this nation.

We believe the coalition has a great record and we will continue— (Time expired)