Thursday, 1 September 2022

Ministers statements: manufacturing sector

Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Public Transport, Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Minister for Industry Support and Recovery, Minister for Business Precincts) (14:17): Thank you, Speaker. I am also speaking in my capacity as the roads and road safety and public transport minister, because on this side of the house we can do a few things at once, can’t we? I do want to update the house on how well the Andrews Labor—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Order! I want to hear the ministers statement.

Mr CARROLL: I want to give it, Speaker, too, because I want to update the house on the record job the Andrews Labor government is doing in creating jobs and supporting the manufacturing system right across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. We know it is a cornerstone of the Victorian economy—260 000 jobs. 84 000 jobs in manufacturing are full-time. It is a $30 billion a year industry. When we came to government the unemployment rate was 6.7 per cent. Now it is 3.1 per cent. Also when we came to government the Victorian auto industry was on the way out. Many people said that Victoria would go backwards, we would go into recession. What did the Andrews Labor government do? We put $120 million into investing in the auto transition, and we saved TAFE—again, two things at once. So that is what we do on this side of the house. But whether it is saving the auto industry and continuing to invest in manufacturing, whether it is building a world-class public transport system, building the Education State, transforming our healthcare system or putting us on a path to net zero emissions, we will make sure that we continue to support industry.

Only last month, when they decided to shelve the Suburban Rail Loop, the opposition leader went on radio and said, ‘We’re being ignored by a government in high-vis vests and hard hats’. We know Scott Morrison would not hold a hose. Now the opposition leader is saying he will not wear a hard hat or a high-vis vest. We will always be the government of jobs, hard hats and high-vis vests, investing in the future, keeping the unemployment rate under 4 per cent, not walking away from the auto industry when it is on its knees—saving it—putting Victorians at the front and jobs everywhere we go. (Time expired)