Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

You're not on my side if you're not revoking the carbon tax, mate, I can tell you now. What we need here is a methodical, measured process, not the process that the Labor Party have embarked on, not the self-fulfilling prophecy that they have rolled out the door this week. We want people who want to get behind this industry. Frightening car workers in the lead-up to Christmas is doing nothing to enhance confidence in the industry.

Of course, the accusations are flying thick and fast that we are not prepared to put any money into the car industry. That is nonsense. It is complete nonsense. Looking at the forward estimates, anyone who can read a budget paper will know that there is over a billion dollars committed to that industry. And I stand here as the minister who committed $4.3 billion to this industry, which it is still spending. So, in addressing this MPI, I am not for a moment going to take any criticism from those opposite that the coalition is anything but totally committed to the car industry and its future in Australia. But I am not going to embark on a process where we simply say, 'Here's a problem; let's hurl some money at it.' I am still dealing with the residues of that—and will be for some time—which the Labor Party thought was a quick way to fix this, a bandaid fix. The Labor Party just threw a money bandaid at it. 'Throw a money bandaid at it and it'll be someone else's problem after the next election.' Damn right it is.

Seeing as the Labor Party want to talk about their record in government on the car industry, let us have a look at it. Two car manufacturers gone.

A government member: Two out of four.

Two out of four, yes. And did we on this side stand up and politicise the issue? Of course not. We felt empathy for the workers. When we were on the opposition benches, did we try, question time after question time, to make an issue of the government's mismanagement of the car industry? No. We were happy to work with them.

Let us look at the numbers. When I left as industry minister, there were 335,000 cars being made in Australia every year; when I came back, what did I find? A third of them were no longer there. It was down to 221,000 units. When I was industry minister, there were 200 businesses in the supply chain. I come back and do an audit, and there are 150 left. Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, anywhere you look, the Labor Party stand damned for the state of the car industry at the moment. Now, that is the result of constant mismanagement, constant change.

We heard during question time a question from the opposition—which, again, is of no assistance to the industry at all—about whether or not a reduction in the funding going forwards would be a devastating blow to the car industry. I think they even suggested it would shut the industry down. Let us reflect again on the Labor Party in government. Let us see what they did when they had the treasury bench. Let us see what they took out of car industry plans. They took out no less than $1.23 billion. They took $429.7 million, let us say $430 million, out of the Cleaner Car Rebate Scheme—I will have to check which minister it was at the time, but I think it was Senator Carr, who announced that it was no longer required; and, prior to that, they had taken $801 million in savings out of the Green Car Innovation Fund. That is $1.23 billion.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Did we as an opposition stand up and say, 'The industry is doomed'? Of course not. Did we stand up and say—

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