Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Consultation is not about being able to talk underwater with a mouthful of marbles, as we have just seen from Senator Feeney. Consultation is not what we heard at the beginning of this week from former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who acknowledged that the current Prime Minister—your Prime Minister, Senator Feeney—could be described as a control freak. Control freaks are hardly renowned for their consultation—far from it. This is a government that is very clearly demonstrating that it is a one-man show and nobody else gets a word in. Those who might wish to talk to the government do not get the opportunity to get a word in either. It is a closed shop on the other side—that is, of course, what they would like to reintroduce in industrial relations and it is what they are operating in their own government. As Senator Bushby said so clearly before, we had these meetings happening today, which the Minister for Climate Change and Water was happy to undertake, which, in the true Labor tradition, were closed shops. ‘No ticket, no entry’ is obviously the approach the Labor Party is taking to its so-called consultation.

That is not good enough when Australian jobs are on the line—and they are very clearly on the line at present. We have had international reports overnight that that there will be 200,000 Australian jobs at risk over the next year. These jobs are at risk partly because of the global financial crisis and partly because they depend on this government’s management. And, from what we have seen of this government’s management of the global financial crisis so far, there can be little doubt that those 200,000 or more Australians who are worried about their jobs have every reason to continue to be concerned.

Amongst those who are worried about their jobs are the people at Nyrstar—the workers, the contractors, the families and the communities who rely on Nyrstar and many other companies like it around Australia for their employment and support. There are hundreds of jobs at stake.