Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027
Mr HOLZBERGER (Forde) (10:47): I am very glad that the member for Casey is here because it gives me a chance to talk about some of the things that we were talking about last time we were in this chamber. If you can just bear with me for a second, one thing I'd like to address from his contribution there is that he talks about having an experience in industry, but having run companies and small businesses myself, I know that there are two ways that you can run a small business.
One is you can invest in your plant and your people, or you can strip the profits out of it and run it into the ground. And the way the Labor Party runs this country is like the way that we run a business. We invest in our plant and we invest in our people.
They strip the profits out of it and they run the country into the ground. The other thing that I want to talk about is that it was interesting hearing the member for Canning there talk about—are they now opposing the support that we're giving to the Whyalla steelworks? I remember an interview, a now famous interview, where the member for Canning was talking about not making a last stand for economic rationalism.
Well, it seems that their support for Whyalla would be testing that statement. At the end of the day—I would appreciate it if the member for Casey bears with me for a sec—I think there are three things that have landed Australian people at the moment in a situation where we are just not going to cop the status quo any more. They are privatisation, economic rationalism and unfettered free trade.
The last time I said unfettered free trade it got the member for Casey really worked up. So it gives me a chance to explain it as he walks out the door. By unfettered free trade, I am a huge supporter in free trade and in tariffs being reduced.
It has been wonderfully beneficial for the country. It has been wonderfully beneficial for the world. But what you can't do is just open the borders, lower the tariffs and leave your industry to compete against state owned industries overseas.
What you can't do is just abandon the manufacturing and textile industries that were protected by those tariffs by walking away and leaving it to the free market. That's what you did. That's what your side did.
Being in South Australia, I knew how important it was to protect our car industry, but the member for Casey's party was happy to walk out on the car industry and let it go to rot. Do you know why people are so angry? Do you know why they're turning away from the coalition parties?
Look at what happened in the South Australian car industry. You would well know, Deputy Speaker Sharkie. When they closed the Lonsdale car plant, they did a study of the workers there.
They found that a third of those workers went and found good jobs; a third of those workers went and found insecure, casual jobs and lost their hours and lost their income; and a third of those workers never worked again. So you wonder why people are angry at the moment. You wonder why living standards have gone backwards in this country.
You sit there and smirk, the member for Casey. There is a lot of anger out there. Your side of politics seems to be dismissing it and not caring about it and wanting to protect the status quo.
I can tell you it is a feature of the Albanese Labor government that we have realised the status quo is no longer acceptable, and that is why we have picked up the slack to invest, to take part in investment of something like $2½ billion to protect the workers in Whyalla. By the way, I come from that region. As a Broken Hill boy, I grew up with the television network which was connected with Whyalla and Port Pirie.
We've also stepped in to protect the jobs in Port Pirie, and there's more work being done on that. We've stepped in to protect the jobs in Mount Isa, at the smelter there. We've stepped in to protect the jobs in Gladstone, in the member for Flynn's electorate, by investing a billion dollars to support the aluminium industry.
We have picked up the slack. We have realised that free trade is a fabulous thing for our economy and a fabulous thing for our country. We cannot let industry wither on the vine like those in the opposition parties did.
The member for Canning talks about not taking a last stand for economic rationalism, for neoliberalism. Well, I'm not sure that that is something which is shared universally across the party. I suspect it's shared by a couple of the National Party members sitting there, but the Liberal Party has completely lost the plot, and I think it's really paying a price for it at the moment.
The member for Casey smirks, but I'll tell you who is not smirking—the Australian people, because, over the last 30 years of mainly coalition rule, we have seen industry walk out the door, we have seen housing be run into the ground, we have seen— Honourable members interjecting— Mr HOLZBERGER: So I commend these budget bills. (Time expired) The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Sharkie ): Before I call the next speaker, can we all just be a little bit quiet and a little bit more respectful of whoever is on their feet speaking.