Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution to this debate on the government response to an order for the production of documents. The honourable—well, he's not quite the honourable yet, are you Senator Birmingham? What a display of absolute contempt for his own state of South Australia! Here we have a government that walked away from manufacturing. We have had a contribution from Senator Birmingham in the chamber which was chilling in its lack of empathy for workers. 'They will find other jobs;' he said, 'there will be other jobs'—in this brand-new economic world he is building. He cannot point us to any of those jobs. He cannot tell us where those thousands of manufacturing workers and component suppliers are going to fit into this brand-new world of his. I might practise doing my belt up and putting one hand in my pocket as he does—it might make me look a little bit more politician-like!

His opposition in South Australia took to the electorate very, very clearly the statement: 'We are about business. We want to reduce land tax. We want to reduce the cost of business.' They did not win enough seats to form government. So your message, Senator Birmingham, to those workers in manufacturing and other places—

Senator Birmingham interjecting—