MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Mr GEORGANAS (Adelaide) (16:07): I'm just astounded by what I've been hearing from the other side—not just the last speaker, the member for Cook, but all the others. Those of you who were here in 2013 would recall quite clearly the coalition's then treasurer goading General Motors-Holden out of Australia. We recall it very well.

Being a South Australian and the son of a manufacturing worker who worked on the production line in General Motors-Holden, I found that very offensive at the time. If anyone didn't support manufacturing industry, it was the coalition in government and in opposition. We've seen them oppose every bill that has been brought to this place to support manufacturing.

We've seen them oppose the car-manufacturing industry. In my home state, General Motors-Holden alone supported over 40,000 jobs. If you want to talk about manufacturing being offshored, the cars that were produced here in Adelaide, in Elizabeth, are now being produced in Asia and in Mexico, because of the direct intervention of the then coalition treasurer, Mr Joe Hockey.

And the proof of that is that, two days after he made his speech here on the frontbench, Mr Devereux, who was the CEO of General Motors-Holden, came out on the front page of the Advertiser and said, 'We no longer have the support of the coalition government and we're moving offshore.' So, if you want to talk about supporting manufacturing, you should have been supporting the automobile industry.

Today, we would have been building electric cars and exporting them around the world had the industry had a little bit of support from the coalition back then. What I'm seeing in my electorate is many manufacturing jobs being created. We've created 7,000 new businesses since 2022.

I've got to say that we want every opportunity for Australian businesses and industry to also participate in this once-in-a-generation manufacturing that's coming our way. In South Australia, we've seen the Defence industry. We've seen AUKUS.

We are talking about thousands of jobs—just like my father and thousands of others who worked in the manufacturing industry in South Australia—because we were able to design a car from start to finish, from design to the showroom, with the production of motor vehicles. Thousands of people worked. We're on the cusp of another manufacturing revolution if the opposition supports it.

That is, in South Australia, Defence building—not only in South Australia but in Perth, in Queensland and all over the country. Listening to the opposition talk about not supporting businesses et cetera is just beside me. I know that energy prices are high.

I think we all accept that. We want to see lower energy prices, but the coalition spent the last 10 years with 22 different energy policies. How could any industry in renewables or in any energy come to the party and feel confident about the government?

We've had to start afresh from the very beginning, because we saw that side with 22 different energy policies. They couldn't come to grips with what the reality was. Again, listening to them again today, I don't think this is a motion about supporting manufacturing.

This is again about being denialists about climate change. This is their way of saying, 'We deny climate change.' They remind me of the Japanese soldiers in World War II that were left in caves and thought that the war was still continuing. They were found many years after, and, when they were discovered, they still wanted to fight.

Everyone was going: 'No, it's okay. The war is over. We're in peacetime now.' That's what the opposition is.

They still haven't come to terms with the fact that the Australian public has moved on, that we believe in climate change and that we need renewables to ensure that we meet our targets, but also that the more renewables and the more energy companies that are in the foray, the cheaper prices will be. When they come to that realisation, they may be competent and again in a position to sell themselves to the Australian public, but, at this point, I just cannot see what the argument is in terms of manufacturing and in terms of energy cost.

They have to ensure that they do everything that they can, just as we are, to support manufacturing but also support renewables, because the more renewables we have in the market, the better off we will be and the cheaper the prices will be. (Time expired)