Mr PASIN (Barker) (15:49): I am very pleased to speak in response to this matter of public importance because it is of great interest to people in my home state of South Australia. Before I go any further I would like to say that the good people of Wakefield nearly got it right at the last state election. The result in that electorate was so very close. I will say more about that in a minute. I am proud to represent the interests of my electorate. It takes great pride in being in the federal coalition government, which is keeping the commitments that it made to voters in the last election. While we are on the topic of manufacturing, I would like to point out that so much of the economic wealth that comes out of Barker is directly tied to the manufacturing sector. That is why I am committed to ensuring that Australia boasts the right conditions for all of our manufacturing industries to remain competitive in the long term. We on this side of the chamber want a viable automotive industry in Australia. We expect the car manufacturing industry, like any industry, to be able to stand on its own two feet. The Labor Party is anxiously waiting for Holden to make an announcement about its future. The Labor Party is hoping— An opposition member interjecting— Mr PASIN: The member for Wakefield is the cheerleader on this because he—unlike those on this side of the chamber—more than anyone in this place, would love to see the demise of Holden, because he could use it for his base political advantage. I have a little bit of advice for the member for Wakefield. His mate the Premier is coming over, I understand. The member for Wakefield should hock him around his colleagues in the Senate so that the Premier can talk to them about the carbon tax. That is what the member for Wakefield should do if he wants to do something serious about this industry and if he wants to send a message to the workers in his electorate—the few of them that still support him. I must say I was really impressed by the behaviour by the member for Wakefield during question time. I thought, 'Why is he being so well behaved?' Then I thought, 'He would hate to be kicked out when he was due to be speaking on an MPI.' It is so nice to have his company in this place between three o'clock and four o'clock! It is a novel concept, and I am really enjoying it. Let us get to the subject of the matter. We had a fringe benefits tax, which was an albatross around this industry's neck. Who came up with that genius idea? The people over there. Who came up with the carbon tax? Bear in mind, this was a carbon tax we were never going to have—who came up with that idea? You did—sorry, Mr Deputy Speaker; those on the other side of the chamber did. I would never impute that to you. Mr Sukkar interjecting— Mr PASIN: What did you say about FBT? What they said about FBT is, 'You know, the car industry is going so well we're going to tax the car industry.' Those on the other side of this chamber are like the arsonist who says, 'I'm complaining about the scorched earth.' They are arsonists who complain about scorched earth. I might be new to this caper, but I will make one observation: credibility is an important thing. Those opposite came into this place yesterday armed with a question: tell us why you are putting at risk 200,000 jobs in the car industry. I thought to myself: that is a question; it has been researched; I had better go away and make sure of my understanding of that. So I spent some time looking for observations in the media about how many jobs are at risk and all these things. Mr Perrett: Use Wikipedia! Mr PASIN: No, I did not use Wikipedia, but someone on your side obviously did, because the highest recorded number of possible job losses I could find was 90,000. That is a long way from the 200,000 of yesterday. As if we did not learn over the last six years that you cannot count! Bear in mind, politics should be about never forgetting and about learning how to count. Those opposite have obviously forgotten they were in government and they cannot count. I have a memo to those in the community who manufacture calculators—read the memo. Get a calculator to every single member over there, because they need them and because they cannot count. We are not talking about 200,000 jobs; it is nowhere near 200,000 jobs. But I will say this: if you are interested in these jobs, stop politicising this and get behind us. Get behind the Productivity Commission.