NORTH EAST MANUFACTURERS SHOULD BE CELEBRATED NOT TAXED
23-May-2011
National Manufacturing Week provides an ideal opportunity for the Gillard Government to abandon its reckless disregard toward Australian industry and dump its carbon tax, Sophie Mirabella MP, Federal Member for Indi and Shadow Minister for Industry said today.
In the electorate of Indi, there are 638* manufacturing businesses and 7688** workers employed in the sector. Many of these firms are already working on wafer-thin margins. They are now under siege from a Government that will sacrifice manufacturing jobs to save Julia Gillard’s.
“Manufacturing is undergoing a revival in importance in most other parts of the developed world – but Julia Gillard and Industry Minister Kim Carr just want to club the sector into extinction in Australia,” said Mrs Mirabella.
“Labor recklessly disregards Australian manufacturers and pays no attention to a vision for the future.”
During Labor’s time in office, nearly 90,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost and there have been more than 20 separate monthly contractions in sectoral activity.
“Unfortunately, Labor’s only substantial policy reply to these developments has been to introduce a carbon tax that will dramatically exacerbate the damage,” Mrs Mirabella continued.
“In the circumstances, it is little wonder that the leaders of Australia’s biggest manufacturer, BlueScope Steel, have been moved to describe the Government‘s approach as “simplistic”, “ill-considered”,“destructive”, “divisive”, and “politically expedient”.
“Exactly the same message is also being echoed by businesses of all shapes and sizes across Australia’s manufacturing sector – but, regrettably, Ms Gillard’s delusional Government doesn’t recognise the problems, cherrypicks its advice and fails to reverse its long list of mistakes.
“The Coalition stands behind Australian manufacturing because we understand how innovative and competitive the sector is – and how important it is that Australia continues to be a nation that ‘makes things’.
“I congratulate manufacturing businesses and workers in North East Victoria and the tremendous contribution they make to our economy,” Mrs Mirabella concluded.