CARR FAILS TO DELIVER ON PROMISE
24-August-2011
Industry Minister, Kim Carr promised on Monday that the Government would be making a big announcement later in the week to bolster Australia’s flailing manufacturing sector. Whilst addressing the press at Parliament House with the Prime Minister and Treasurer at his side, Senator Carr said:
“We will have more to say about this later in the week, it is our intention to match our capabilities with opportunities” and;
“… we'll have something more to say about these questions during the course of this week but we have already been working to bring that advocacy for Australian industry into these projects so that locals can best maximise these opportunities”.
Today Senator Carr made his “big announcement” via a Ministerial speech in the Senate.
The speech contained precisely zero new content and was simply a mish-mash of rehashed failing policy and rhetoric.
In one of the worst weeks for the manufacturing sector in our history surely Australia’s manufacturers deserve better than this.
How can the repetition of failed policy be a “big announcement”?
It’s no wonder many manufacturing businesses believe the Government has decided to fly the white flag and simply sacrifice Australia’s manufacturing to foreign substitution.
The Government may well know that a carbon tax regime will be the final straw for manufacturing and would rather have the sector drift into oblivion prior to its introduction.
The reality is that the Gillard Government simply doesn’t have any answers and is incapable of instilling any confidence into the manufacturing sector.