Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too stand to speak on notice of motion No. 806 moved by senators Madigan and Xenophon in relation to the importance of an automotive transition scheme to Australia's economic prosperity and development. Having listened to Senator Xenophon's very considered contribution on this matter today, I would like to put a couple of things on the record. Firstly, whilst these types of schemes are extremely important when you are trying to transition when you have had a jolt in your marketplace from something as significant as the loss of a major industry sector like the automotive sector, we do need to remember to put it into some level of context. In June alone 8,000 people lost their jobs in our home state of South Australia. When you put that in the context of the number that Senator Xenophon has quoted of people who are potentially going to lose their jobs, or to transition into other areas of manufacture or other areas of employment, 8,000 people in one month seems a lot more significant than that. The reasons why those 8,000 people lost their jobs—and the fact that South Australia has the highest unemployment rate of any state in Australia, including Tasmania—are a very sad indictment of some of the activities that are happening in the state of South Australia. This is not in any way to diminish the significance and importance of the need to ensure that we maximise the smoothness of the transition that we find ourselves in over the next three years to move from a situation where South Australia has had a very large automotive industry—

Senator Gallacher interjecting—