SOPHIE MEETS LOCAL MANUFACTUERES TO DISCUSS CARBON TAX
30-March-2011
Shadow Minister for Industry, Sophie Mirabella MP has met with local manufacturing leaders to discuss challenges facing the industry and potential policy solutions.
The meeting, which was held in Wodonga, was the first of many forums which Mrs Mirabella will be holding across the country. Yesterdays forum was centred around 3 key themes; Labor’s proposed Carbon Tax, Australia’s anti dumping regime and product labelling.
Speaking after the forum, Mrs Mirabella said that Australian manufacturers were being treated like mugs by a Government that has no interest in the future of local manufacturing.
“Australian manufacturers run some of the most efficient and innovative operations anywhere in the world. Australia has a very proud heritage of making things.
Mrs Mirabella believes that Australian manufacturing is at a crossroads.
“Local manufacturers are facing serious challenges. They face intense competition from overseas markets that are often subsidised by Governments, they face the difficulties that arise from a highly valued Australian dollar and they now face the prospect of a job destroying Carbon Tax.
“Unfortunately, Labor has lost all interest in manufacturing. They are burdening manufacturers with too many costs; they are trying to slash R&D support which has operated for 25 years with bi-partisan support and they now want to hit them with a Carbon Tax that will make it almost impossible for local manufacturers to compete in the international market.
“Today’s meeting was a great opportunity for me to speak with local people who are at the coalface of Australian manufacturing,” Mrs Mirabella concluded.