Extract from the CURRENT HOUSE HANSARD
Database
Date: 3 September 1997 (17:07)
Page: 7706
CUSTOMS TARIFF AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 1997 [No. 2]
Second Reading
Ms HANSON (Oxley) (5.11 p.m.) Australia was once a proud, strong, manufacturing nation. In many ways we were independent and self reliant, a product perhaps of our relative isolation and need. The Second World War caused us, because of that isolation and the imminent threat of invasion, to industrialise on a scale not previously imagined for a country of our population.
Today Australians face a new threat: not so much invasion from outside but defeat from within. Australians face the threat of the policies of their own government, a government that for many years has worked against the interests of the majority of the population; a government seemingly prepared to scrap its own people for reasons that are unclear, though there are many theories.
While the reasons are decidedly unclear as to why so many destructive policies have been undertaken by government, the devastation that has resulted is obvious to all. In 1961, 27.5 per cent of Australians were employed in the manufacturing industry, yet today that figure is around 12 per cent and falling. In 1961, unemployment stood at 2.6 per cent but today, even though we are told that unemployment is 8.7 per cent, no one believes this and many suspect and believe that hundreds of thousands of unemployed people are simply hidden in various other programs.
For the last 25 years, both Liberal and Labor have taken us down the path of free trade and globalisation. Though it sees countless Australian businesses and manufacturers disappearing or moving overseas to use the cheap work forces of foreign lands, though it sees farmers forced from their land and Australian companies no longer in Australian hands, though it sees untold numbers of Australians losing not just their jobs but their hope, the government continues to relish its pursuit of an agenda which fails the people who elected it.
Instead of providing jobs or incentives to create employment, the government tries to make people feel better by providing counselling, the dole, sickness benefits and courses that lead to other courses. The government's policies have the effect of cold and flu tablets you feel a little more comfortable but you are still sick.
We have been sold out by our elected representatives to multinationals with trade agreements of no benefit to ordinary Australians. We are fed up with being told about the level playing field and tired of being the only ones playing this game; a game in which Australians cannot break even, let alone win, because other countries maintain their tariff barriers, quotas and other mechanisms to protect their own industries and jobs.
Obvious as this is to working Australians, our politicians fail to see or feel the anguish of our own people. Are politicians isolated from other Australians and removed from the truth seen in cities, suburbs and country towns across Australia, or is it something more sinister?
On 1 July 1997, our government once again exposed an agenda lacking clear explanation or understanding. They dropped tariff protection on raw sugar and certain by products, while other countries maintained high levels of protection. Thailand perhaps our biggest competitor in this industry maintains a tariff of 104 per cent. The United States, where the standard of living is much higher than that of Thailand but not as high as our own, maintains a tariff of 170 per cent. Free trade and the level playing field only work when the countries involved have a similar standard of living. Pursuit of such policies between countries with vastly different standards of living will result in a change for each country. Australia's decline is the perfect example.
The report of the sugar industry review working party, dated December 1995, stated that $30 million per year would be slashed from the income of cane farmers in Queensland and New South Wales. The average farm cash income of Queensland's sugar growers has now fallen $3,000 per year due to the abolition of the sugar tariff. It is said that New South Wales sugar growers will suffer even greater losses. This money, which individually may not seem much to the very well looked after members of this House or to the directors of big business, has now been taken one might say stolen from rural communities.
Since removing the sugar embargo in 1989, they have reduced the tariff from $115 per tonne to nothing. Yet, while they have continued to make sugar cheaper and the growers poorer, it seems that not even the Australian consumer has benefited. During these same years, the price of chocolate, soft drinks and cordials has also risen way above the CPI. The only obvious beneficiary of this tariff abolition is the almost 100 per cent foreign owned beverage and confectionary industry, which has apparently failed to pass on its savings to the Australian public.
The textiles, clothing and footwear industries are also heading for oblivion. Tariff protection for the clothing industry will be reduced from 34 per cent to five per cent by 2008. On top of this, government assistance to this industry has already been reduced by 70 per cent in the past decade. Once again, while our government leads the way for the destruction of all that is Australian and Australian made, other countries are delaying.
The US and Europe have introduced more quotas for TCF. Europe also makes extensive use of anti dumping duties, and the US has modified its rules of origin to further protect its domestic market. The Industry Commission's draft report concedes that these countries will not abolish quotas on sensitive items until 2005. However, contrary to this report, the US and China have already negotiated to safeguard quotas until the year 2010. How they must all rub their hands together and laugh at the stupidity of Australia's desperate rush to destroy itself.
While others continue to negotiate to protect their industries and jobs, Australians open their newspapers each day to find more of our manufacturing becoming a thing of the past as they read of closures and job losses: Berlei, 180 jobs; Gloweave, 85 jobs; Coats Patons, 170 jobs; DuPont, 160 jobs to name but a few. With these go hundreds of indirect jobs as well.
In the case of the loss of 180 jobs at Berlei from the small town of Lithgow, this is another kick in the guts for a community already isolated and suffering. For those who lose their jobs through government policies, the future is grim. Only 47 per cent of TCF workers find new jobs within two years of their retrenchment and, of these, more than one third accept employment at a lower wage. Each of these closures devastate hundreds of Australian families as people struggle to find work, with many forced to accept a much reduced standard of living just to survive.
With more than 700,000 children now living in families where neither parent has a job, you would think our government would understand and correct this folly. Is our government stupid, simply the pawn of big business and international powerbrokers, or is their involvement an undisclosed act of treachery? If the government simply accepts the proposals of the Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia, this will lead to renewed investment of $400 million to $500 million a year. Exports of elaborately processed TCF products will grow to $3.5 billion by the year 2005, and TCF industries will continue to purchase and consume domestic raw materials further supporting local industries.
Tariffs add only minimal cost to consumers. In the TCF industries, the effect of tariffs has been greatly exaggerated. The extra cost on a pair of shoes is about $2.50, and on underpants it is only about 20c. Who would object to these minimal costs when an individual's expenditure of perhaps as little as 20c or 30c a day would, according to the National Institute of Economic Research and Industry, keep another 50,000 Australians employed? Jobs will mean the security of countless thousands of families and children across Australia 50,000 people paying tax instead of being paid welfare; 50,000 people with a sense of purpose, pride, self esteem and a future.
This means less substance abuse, less crime, less family breakdown and more hope for young Australians. I would pay the extra for this. Wouldn't you? In fact, surveys show that over 80 per cent of Australians are willing to pay a little more to preserve Australian manufacturing, production and Australian jobs. They know this will mean a better society and standard of living for us all. Companies that have so far survived the battle caused by government policies are to be applauded but they cannot fight on without help.
Our textiles, clothing and footwear industries must have assurance of protection. But successive Liberal coalition and Labor governments, unchecked by Democrats, Greens and Independents, have shown they cannot be trusted. It is only One Nation that will ensure protection for Australian industry and Australian jobs. It is only we who have said this from the start, and our commitment has never wavered.
The citrus industry is on its knees and, like a bully, the government is kicking sand in the face of these Australian growers. It is a national disgrace to see the man on the land ploughing perfectly good fruit into the ground because he cannot compete with cheap imports. It takes seven years for a tree to produce fruit and 10 years before a profit is made. When the government succeeds in destroying this industry, it will be gone forever.
The tariff on oranges has been reduced from 30 per cent in 1987 to five per cent in 1996, without negotiation or equivalent cuts by other countries. Again, we see the government leading with the chin of our own people. Importation of citrus to other countries is still inhibited by heavy level levels Thailand, over 50 per cent; Korea, 50 per cent to 80 per cent, depending on quota; and Japan up to 40 per cent. Clearly, there are many things Asia expects from us they would never expect from themselves.
The United States has a specific duty on frozen orange juice concentrate equivalent to a tariff of more than 58 per cent. Brazil has an effective tariff of over 40 per cent, and Israel's tariffs range to more than 60 per cent. The citrus industry can cope with the importation of oranges from Brazil but not the price of imported orange juice concentrate. Our citrus farmers cannot compete with the low costs of the Brazilian work force. They cannot compete with Brazil and pay of $2 per day to pick fruit or about $1 per tonne, when in Australia it costs our growers $53 per tonne.
When our government tells us we must be more productive to compete, what they really mean is `survive', because competing means having the same pay and the same standard of living as countries like Brazil. I question who our government is working for. If we consumed Australian citrus produce only, the Australian citrus industry would have to double in size to meet the demand. Protecting the Australian citrus industry will create wealth and jobs for Australians. However, if we do not stop the government from continuing its plans, either the citrus industry will disappear or many Australians involved in the industry will be living like the peasants of a Third World country.
Regarding product origin and appropriate labelling, I call on the government to amend the law so that `Made in Australia' means exactly that. At present, products labelled as `Made in Australia' may contain mostly foreign content. I say to you all: imported Brazilian concentrate plus Australian water does not equal `Made in Australia'. This is misleading, dishonest and does not provide consumers with information allowing them to choose a true Australian product.
The current law is a stupid law meant to deceive the Australian people and deprive Australian producers of their identity and rightful place. If tariffs cost jobs, then why did Toyota invest another billion dollars into the plant at Altona and create another 400 jobs after the government decided to freeze tariff protection until 2005? When these tariffs go in 2005, Australian Toyota workers will either suffer huge pay cuts or complete loss of employment Oh what a feeling!
Just as tariffs produced investment and jobs in the car industry, the same will happen in other industries. We are sick of the Liberal coalition and Labor sacrificing our jobs and the future of our children on the altar of economic rationalism and globalisation. The time is coming when the Liberal coalition and Labor, along with their political allies the Democrats and the Greens will pay for their policies of betrayal.
Jobs that were once feeding Australian families are now feeding families in foreign lands. Millions of my fellow Australians have had enough. When government cease to serve the people, they no longer have the right to exist. The government are here only with the consent of the Australian people. So don't get too comfortable a time of change is about to arrive.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, is bending over backwards to push us into globalisation just as his predecessor, Gareth Evans, did, and as did every foreign minister and member of the government over at least the last 25 years. They want us to become part of Asia and they will happily lower our standard of living in the process.
There are still many true Australians certainly enough to foil their self seeking plans to discard our identity and our history, indeed to relinquish our sovereignty. Most politicians are only concerned for themselves. Their wages and standards of living have continued to rise, while their senseless and disastrous decisions have reduced many Australians to a breadline without hope.
Our car industry has not been saved, merely given a stay of execution. The citrus industry is on its knees and sugar tariffs have been dropped. The planned importation of cooked chicken meat is also likely to lead to imported disease and the loss of a further 17,000 jobs in this industry alone. In coming years, countless thousands of jobs will be lost unless ordinary Australians teach the politicians the only lesson they understand, that is, by voting for someone else.
It is time our government was made up of patriots, not pawns; real Australians doing a job for Australia, not career politicians working for themselves. If possible, I would gladly remove tariffs on our current crop of politicians to see how they survive when unprotected.
This government, like so many before it, has pandered to the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation and has dismally failed in its primary duty the welfare of the Australian people. You who are currently in government and you on the opposition benches who hope to replace them will never be able to be trusted. You have all at one time or another been eager and active participants in, or at least party to, the free trade agenda. It is only as you sense your own necks may soon be on the block that a few of you whimper with some concern not concern for Australia, but merely for your own miserable careers.
The Australian people will not forget 25 years of selling out this country, nor will they forgive you for what you have done. They will always remember the price you made them pay. Make no mistake, the success of One Nation at the next election will mean an end to our falling standard of living and an end to the exportation of our jobs. We are committed to policies of tariffs and protectionism that will revitalise all that is Australian. We will give our country a future that will always put the wellbeing of Australians above all else. (Time expired)