Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the multiple job losses already announced this year from Westpac, the Royal Bank of Scotland, ANZ, Holden, Toyota, BHP, Reckitt, Manildra, Norsk Hydro, Tomago Aluminium and Thales, and I ask: why did the Prime Minister describe these losses as growing pains, and isn't this more evidence that this is the worst possible time to introduce the world's biggest carbon tax?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What I would say to the Leader of the Opposition is that at a time when there are workers in some sections of the economy who are losing jobs it is incumbent upon us to understand why that is happening and to respond, not to make up reasons in the way that the Leader of the Opposition is making up reasons.

Can I particularly say I was disgusted this morning to see the opposition trying to use job losses at Alcoa to continue its fear campaign on carbon pricing when the CEO of Alcoa made it absolutely clear that this was not to do with carbon pricing. What sort of people would use the distress of working people, on hearing about job losses, for their own political ends? And we saw that done by the opposition this morning. We are in economic times when our economy is strong. We came out of the global financial crisis strong. We came out of it strong because of the way in which we invested in the economy, an investment that was opposed by those opposite, who did not care about jobs then. We saved 200,000 jobs and have unemployment at just over five per cent.

Yes, there is structural change occurring in our economy because of the strength of the Australian dollar and because economic weight is moving into our region, which will drive a different pattern of demand for Australian goods and services. Then there are the structural changes that are necessary to take us to a clean energy future and to get us the best of technology. And where does the Leader of the Opposition sit as we go through this period of change? Opposed to jobs.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on direct relevance. Why did the Prime Minister describe these job losses as growing pains? These are real people and she ought to answer that question.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. I am listening very carefully to the answer being given by the Prime Minister. She is addressing the question asked by the Leader of the Opposition.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition is referring to a speech that I gave on the economy. He is trying to twist words and take them out of context. Every time I hear about job losses in this country, I am concerned; every time the Leader of the Opposition hears about job losses, he works out how he can use that to his political advantage—just like he did this morning with Alcoa, a disgusting approach at a time when working people are in need and under pressure. It is a disgusting approach.

The Leader of the Opposition's plan for the economy is to not support jobs in car manufacturing, to not support jobs across the economy and to keep our economy at a standstill so that we miss out on the opportunities of the future. We on this side of this parliament are determined to make sure that we support working people today and get them great opportunities in the new economy that we are building for our nation's future.