House of Representatives
Wednesday 17 February 2021

After seven years of this Liberal government and listening to the minister, we can guarantee one thing: manufacturing in this country is now a wasteland thanks to this government. Let's look at the facts. Since this government came to power—and the minister would like us to think, 'Thank heavens she was in power!'—she has delivered the vanishing of 90,000 jobs. One hundred and forty thousand apprenticeships and traineeships have vanished under this government. In my electorate, from 2013 to 2018, apprenticeships dropped by 43 per cent.

Eight hundred and sixty thousand Australians rely on the manufacturing sector for their livelihood, and what's the government's plan to keep them afloat? Well, there isn't one. The government's plan is to take away work and make it easier to move manufacturing jobs offshore so that we have to import all of our goods. We've had a debate today about car manufacturing. I'm with the shadow industry and innovation minister. Why can't we build electric cars here in Australia? Why can't we merge blue- and white-collar jobs? Why can't we support the 86,000 small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses that are still alive in this country? It's all very well for the member for Petrie to talk about the barbecues that he's buying and about his home improvements and all that's happening, but he won't stand in this chamber and talk about the jobs that he has slashed and the lack of a plan to deliver real reform in this country.

While we're talking about cars and the manufacturing industry, let's look at what the sector says about this minister, the so-called minister who wants a pat on the back for driving industry overseas. The headline of the article I refer to is 'Karen Andrews "sidelined"', and it refers to a meeting held in Canberra with the Australian Automotive Dealer Association, where it was revealed that, because of the minister's incompetence, Minister Cash has been made responsible for dealing with the issue of automotive dealerships. Fancy putting Senator Cash in charge of everything! If that's not a clear message that you're not on top of your game, I don't know what is.

The article says:

The move follows outrage from dealers—

car dealers in all of our electorates across Australia—

when in the lead-up to Christmas, Minister Andrews released an "Automotive Principles" policy for an industry code that was voluntary and was to be trialled for two years before the government revisited the issue.

She was putting it into the 'too hard' basket. The article continues:

The AADA issued a note saying that Minister Andrews' actions were a "kick in the guts" for car dealers and their 60,000 employees and it was a major setback for dealers who were seeking to be protected from OEMs—

the large multinational companies—

which abused their uneven power over dealers.

"Just when dealers thought this year could not possibly get worse, Minister Karen Andrews has sided with multinational car manufacturers, some of which have treated Australian dealers and their customers with absolute disdain in 2020" AADA CEO James Voortman said in the note.

"It is clear that car dealers in Australia desperately need a strong set of mandatory protections which protect dealers against the abuses from car manufacturers. What we have today is a do-nothing policy cynically released on a Friday afternoon," he said.

That sets it up in one sector in this country. We all have car dealerships in our electorates. They are the lifeblood of rural and regional communities. They provide support to the local footy clubs and the local cricket clubs. They sponsor our teams, and this government and this minister have treated them with utter contempt. So I don't want any lectures from the other side today, talking about small business and talking about manufacturing. Here you have dealers in this country crying out for help. It is bad enough that this government goaded and demanded that manufacturing leave our shores. Now you are seeing the icing on the cake.

In my home state of Queensland the state Labor government is delivering a manufacturing plan, a multibillion-dollar train-building plan. Who can forget Campbell Newman's trains? They were built in India, wouldn't fit on the tracks and didn't have disability access. Time and time again, it has been shown that this government cannot be trusted when it comes to manufacturing and manufacturing jobs in this country.

In my own community I have had the privilege of meeting a whole range of industries in manufacturing. They all say the same thing: they want help and they want support. They don't want announcements and photo opportunities by this government and this Prime Minister. It's time this government took manufacturing seriously in Australia.