Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Minister for Finance) (14:44): The one thing that has put irreversible pressure on manufacturing in Australia is the bad performance of the previous Labor government over the last six years. The previous government killed manufacturing in Australia over the last six years, pushing up the cost of doing business with the carbon tax and choking business with all of the additional red tape—in particular in the workplace relations area. If we want to be competitive internationally in manufacturing we have got to focus on— Senator Xenophon: Mr President, on relevance: the question relates to the slashing of the Automotive Transformation Scheme. It is in relation to the impact of this particular scheme on the automotive components sector. The PRESIDENT: I do draw the minister's attention to the question. Minister, you have 31 seconds remaining. Senator CORMANN: But you cannot consider one without the other. Obviously, anything that pushes up the cost of doing business in Australia, which makes our manufacturing sector in Australia less competitive, is going to have implications on the sustainability of manufacturing into the future. The decisions made by the previous government did push up the cost of doing business recklessly and irresponsibly. What we are doing is facing the facts. You cannot continue to provide for subsidies to manufacturing that will no longer happen after a particular period. (Time expired)