Mr HOCKEY (North Sydney—The Treasurer) (15:14): Enough of the confected anger from the other side, thanks. Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! If I see that copy of the Financial Review held up again, whoever holds it up is out under 94(a). Mr HOCKEY: Let's deal with some of the facts. If the Labor Party thinks that something that was said in this House yesterday caused General Motors to suddenly decide, after being here for decades, that they should leave the country, then that just illustrates how poorly informed the Labor Party is about how enterprise works. These decisions are made over a matter of months, if not years—and it was a very significant decision for General Motors. And it was no secret. It was in the Wall Street Journal. It was well known to people that General Motors Holden were contemplating leaving Australia. The confected anger from Labor is appalling, because it treats the Australian people and stakeholders and workers with total contempt. In their statement in Detroit the Chief Executive of General Motors Holden said emphatically: The decision to end manufacturing in Australia reflects the perfect storm of negative influences the automotive industry faces in the country, including the sustained strength of the Australian dollar, high cost of production, small domestic market and arguably the most competitive and fragmented auto market in the world. The hypocrisy of the Labor Party knows no bounds. This morning they were railing against the high Australian dollar and in the meantime they invite Paul Keating to come and address the caucus about how good it was to float the Australian dollar! Mr Danby: It was right! Mr HOCKEY: That's right: it was right to float the Australian dollar, and General Motors Holden identified it as one of the reasons why they are leaving Australia—the high Australian dollar. So please spare us the hypocrisy— Mr Danby interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Melbourne Ports! Mr Stephen Jones interjecting— Mr Clare interjecting— Mr HOCKEY: Are you going to throw them out? The SPEAKER: The member for Melbourne Ports, the member for Throsby and the member for Blaxland are all warned. Mr HOCKEY: They are warned? But there was a general warning. Australia's share of world car production has decreased from 0.8 per cent of cars in 2000 to 0.32 per cent of cars in 2011. That is our share of world car production. So it has virtually halved. In contrast, during that period, from the beginning of this century, in Asian economies and the Middle East car production has increased from six per cent of world production to 36 per cent of world production. So global manufacturers have moved to places of production where it is cheaper to produce a motor vehicle. That was best evidenced by Toyota's submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry, which states that by 2018 it 'needs to reduce the cost of producing each vehicle in Australia by $3,800'. Holden has said 'it costs $3,750 per vehicle more to build cars in Australia relative to other countries such as Thailand'. And of that $3,750, $2,000 is within Holden's own plants—and it mainly relates to the cost of labour. Another $1,500 is associated with their buy-local program and the final $250 is the cost of logistics for imported components. The high cost of production in Australia is no secret. Everyone knows it has been the case; it has been regularly stated by the manufacturers themselves. As it is no secret that the costs of production were proving so prohibitive— Mr Zappia interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Makin will desist! Mr HOCKEY: The costs of production in Australia have inhibited our ability to compete on the world stage, therefore we must do everything we possibly can to try and reduce our costs of production without reducing the real wages of workers. So I say emphatically again in this place, as I did yesterday, to the workers at Toyota: please on Friday vote to support Toyota being in Australia. Please do that. Please do not listen to the AMWU, which is urging you to vote against a change in the work conditions at Toyota. If there is any lesson that must be learnt it is that you cannot push against the tide; you must work with the flow to get maximum benefit for Australian workers. That is what you have to do. Now we have the union saying that Toyota, which exports 70 per cent of its production to the Middle East, should close for 21 days over Christmas—when the Middle East needs that constant supply of Toyota motor vehicles. And it is not as if Toyota is saying, 'No Christmas'—it is coming back and saying, 'We just want to close the plant for 10 days, please, so that we can be a consistent supplier to the Middle East.' What about this clause in the agreement between Toyota and its workers: currently, union representatives are entitled to 10 days paid education leave per year for the purpose of union sponsored training. Union reps get 10 days pay for 10 days of sponsored training, and the union representatives are able to pool their collective days. So some senior union reps can take months off work and be paid by Toyota. Toyota is legitimately saying, 'We want to be able to allow our union representatives to take days off for union training, but let's get the balance right.' How do you explain in Tokyo that workers are entitled to have four hours paid leave for the purpose of donating blood? Really, this is the sort of stuff that sends the worst message overseas. And Detroit as a capital city has just gone bankrupt. General Motors has just lost billions of dollars. The American government has just lost nearly $10 billion on its investment in General Motors. General Motors is closing plants right around the world. And in Australia the costs of production per vehicle are $3,750 higher than anywhere else. And why is it a surprise? Mr Danby: Why are they exporting? Mr HOCKEY: They are not exporting; that is the problem. You don't get it. The export market has fallen apart for General Motors-Holden in Australia. The SPEAKER: The member for Melbourne Ports is not in his seat. He is interjecting and will remove himself under 94(a). The member for Melbourne Ports then left the chamber. Mr HOCKEY: The Labor Party just does not get it. And as if there was not any warning from General Motors executives, from Toyota executives: the OECD, in a report compiled in 2012, said emphatically that all the reasons General Motors identified today were the reasons that in 2012 the government at the time should have worked with the motor vehicle industry on the transition arrangements. This is not a surprise to Labor. They were warned by the OECD in 2012. The chief of staff of the former Treasurer, the member for Lilley, was at the OECD as a Treasury representative at the time. And the warning was clear: if you do not deal with these transitional issues there will not be a future for motor vehicle manufacturing in Australia. Of course we are upset about this; of course we are. We hate the fact that Australians are losing jobs. And we want to do absolutely everything we can to stop that. We were the ones who said that you cannot put a new $1.8 billion tax on the motor vehicle industry. We were the ones who said that the best way to help manufacturing in Australia is to get rid of the carbon tax. We were the ones who said that if you want to stimulate other industries, like the mining industry, the worst thing you can do is impose a mining tax. And we were the ones who said that you have to get rid of the regulation, you have to get rid of the red tape, you have to lower your costs of production in order to compete with the rest of the world. But the Labor Party do not get it. They have never run a business. Most of them have never worked in a business. It is all pure politics from Labor. And the losers out of that are the workers, because the Labor Party are more concerned about a political headline than they are about the worth of everyday workers. We are going to do everything we can for the workers, not just at General Motors-Holden but also at Toyota—all the component manufacturers' workers—and also for the taxpayers of Australia. Ultimately what it comes down to is that prosperity comes only from hard work and enterprise; it does not come from the benevolence of taxpayers.