Senator FARRELL (South Australia) (16:05): I absolutely reject the suggestion from Senator McKenzie that I am making comments from the sidelines. I have engaged in this debate every single day of this week. Senator Kroger: But what did you do about it for six years, though? You could have done something for six years. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Whish-Wilson ): Order! Senator FARRELL: I am happy to answer that question. I am very happy to answer that question, Senator Kroger. I did my level best to ensure— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Through me, please, Senator Farrell. Senator FARRELL: Sorry? The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Address through the chair. Senator FARRELL: Yes, I will address through the chair, thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. But I intend to answer the question of Senator Kroger. For every single day I have been in this place I have sought to defend and protect the automotive industry. It is an industry I believe Australia needs. It needs it for a whole lot of reasons, including, I think, national security reasons, and I completely reject Senator McKenzie's suggestion that I am carping from the sidelines. I have been involved in this debate, I have given many speeches on the issue of the importance of the car industry and this is one more that I am going to give today. I did see what Prime Minister Abbott said about the announced closure of Holden. He has called it a 'dark day', and he is right about that. It is a dark day. But it did not have to be a dark day. In fact, it could have been a bright day today. Had the owners of Holden Australia made a different decision—the decision I thought they ought to have made—it could have been a very bright day for the Australian manufacturing industry. Why didn't they make that decision that could have been a bright decision? One of the reasons, we now find out today, is that Mr Abbott had made no contact with the Holden company since the election. Everybody in this country—from workers at the Holden factory to a minister in the government, to state ministers and state members of parliament—knew that there was a significant issue at hand in respect of Holden, that there was an important decision to be made, and yet we find out today that the Prime Minister of this country has not spoken to this company. We know that there was one person in the Abbott cabinet who was interested and did attempt to save this company. Senator Jacinta Collins: Yes; the minister. Senator FARRELL: Yes; Minister Macfarlane. He was interested, but he had no support. He did not have any support from the rest of the cabinet, including, I assume, the sole South Australian cabinet minister, Minister Pyne. He obviously did not speak up on behalf of— Senator Jacinta Collins: He bungled schools, and now he's done industry. Senator FARRELL: Of course he was a pushover. They pushed him into getting rid of Gonski; two or three days later they pushed him back to supporting Gonski. But on the really important issue here of Holden, he was nowhere to be seen. I do not think, in my time in this parliament, I have ever seen a government go out of its way so actively to encourage a negative decision by a company. The decision of Minister Hockey was to goad this company into making an early decision on this issue, when he should have been doing exactly the opposite. He should have been making soothing noises; he should have been indicating that the Australian people want to live in a country where we continue to make cars. That is the message he should have been giving this company. In fact, he gave it the opposite. What also amazed me yesterday, when it was clear that there was a serious issue here in that Prime Minister Abbott had not contacted the company, was what the Acting Prime Minister or the acting Deputy Prime Minister—I am not sure what he was—Minister Truss did. What did he do? Did he get on the phone to the company and say: 'Look, we want you to stay manufacturing in this country. We want you to continue to build cars. We want you to keep employing Australians. We want those Australians to be paying tax so that this country continues to grow'? No, he did not get on the phone. Did he send an email to the company indicating those things? No, he wrote a letter. He used snail mail to get in contact with this company. They were not serious about saving the manufacturing industry. (Time expired)