Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would normally be reluctant to take interjections, Mr Acting Deputy President, but there was an interjection and I thought it would be rude to interrupt the minister at the table.

Sinclair Davidson from RMIT University said in the Age on 12 December 2006:

The appointment of Senator Kim Carr of the Victorian Socialist Left to the shadow industry portfolio needs to be seen in this light. Nobody has ever accused “Kim il Carr” of market fundamentalism. Indeed, he has been an implacable foe of all things “market”.

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Rudd is promising a new direction in industry policy—not the discredited industry policy that leads to high tariffs, protectionism, and hidden taxes on consumers. So while Rudd is telling us that tariffs are discredited, he is reappointing the man who campaigned for that very policy at the last election.

We have a couple of people there who are great supporters of Mr Latham—Senator Carr and, of course, Senator Faulkner, the National President of the Australian Labor Party, who we know is very, very close to the disgraced Mr Latham.

In the Australian of 13 December 2006, Alan Wood said:

Then we come to senator Kim Il Carr, as his colleagues call him (after North Korea’s erratic leader). Carr is Rudd’s new Shadow minister for industry, actually another political retread from Latham’s shadow ministry, where he held the same shadow portfolio.

In those days Labor’s manufacturing policy was all about big handouts of taxpayers’ money to industry, a 10-year plan for manufacturing and similar paraphernalia of government interventionism.

So far Rudd has spent most of his time telling us what his promised new policy for manufacturing isn’t. It isn’t about tariff protection, it isn’t about picking winners, it isn’t about industry welfare, and so on. What is it about?

I am afraid that Alan Wood will be none the wiser after Senator Carr’s performance in this chamber today. I repeat: two months out from an election he had 20 minutes—with his lectern and with a prepared speech—to tell the Australian people what the Australian Labor Party will do for manufacturing if they are elected to government. It was a wasted opportunity. It was an appalling speech. (Time expired)