Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

Given they are all union members on that side, that careless attitude is probably amplified by the union officials in the AMWU representing the workers. People like Mr Smith refuse to budge on this argument. They say their workers have already done the heavy lifting and now it is time for the government to do so. To quote the article in the paper today:

For General Motors in Australia, wages for trades employees have increased by about 76 per cent since 2000, and 21 per cent since 2008, jumping from $679.20 a week in 2000 to $1194.50 a week this year ... for a 38-hour week. Workers are paid shift penalties and overtime rates, with Sunday shifts paid at 2½ times the normal weekday rate.

In good times, that is great, that is acceptable. But when you have an industry which is fighting to keep its jobs, the union would rather say, 'We need to maintain our standards; we don't need to maintain jobs. We need to maintain the high standards we have achieved'—and good luck to them—'but we don't need to maintain jobs.'

The coalition is focusing on keeping jobs in Australia but we have to be competitive. We need to reduce the component cost per motor vehicle by over $3,700 to remain competitive. We need everyone to play a part. This government has already committed a billion dollars from 2016 on—$1 billion extra. In contrast, what did the previous government do with its Green Car Innovation Fund? It cut $1.2 billion. You see, the former Labor government thought the way you grew the motor vehicle industry was to increase wage and production costs, pull money out of the industry and whack an FBT on it. It should be no surprise to anyone that there is virtually no-one on the opposition benches who has had their own skin in the game, who has been in business and understands the costs of operating a business and what is required to make your product competitive.

If we want to see the motor vehicle industry survive in Australia, we need to increase sales. That also needs the cooperation of the Australian public at large. There is no point producing more vehicles in Australia if, indeed, Australian consumers do not want to buy them. I am yet to see a campaign by the Australian union movement demanding that their workers buy Australian made cars, or to see union officials driving Australian made cars. We see their hypocrisy.

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