Coalition has civil war over cars: Shorten

13 Jan 2012, 3:22 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Acting Treasurer Bill Shorten says opposition frontbencher Joe Hockey has started an economic civil war in the coalition over car industry assistance.

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey's refusal to support the car industry signals an economic civil war within the coalition, Acting Treasurer Bill Shorten says.

Mr Hockey reportedly favours the coalition maintaining its policy to cut $500 million in car industry subsidies despite support from other Liberal party MPs to reverse the policy.

The coalition on Thursday announced a separate review of industry assistance to help it make a final decision on its policy ahead of the next election.

Mr Shorten on Friday accused Mr Hockey of cutting and running from the industry.

"Today we've seen from Mr Hockey the declaration of an economic civil war within the opposition," he told reporters in Melbourne.

"On one side marked by the leader of the opposition Tony Abbott, the leader of the National Party in the Senate Barnaby Joyce ... and the other side Mr Hockey, and other Liberal MPs, who say we should abandon the car industry."

The Acting Treasurer said he could not understand why some in the Liberal party did not like the car-making industry, which supports 46,000 direct jobs, contributed to value R&D, the training of skilled workers and had a multiplier effect in the economy.

"A nation which stops building cars altogether, I think is giving up on manufacturing altogether."

Senator Joyce defended the differences of opinion in the coalition.

"That is the nature of politics that things are arbitrated and balanced through the course of debate," Senator Joyce told ABC Radio.

"If you don't have a debate you don't have a party."

Senator Joyce said it was essential for Australia to support manufacturing.

"I think it's absolutely important that if we want to be a country that means something then we've got to be a country that makes something."

People around the world are not driven by zealotry, but by pragmatism and by looking after their own people, Senator Joyce said.

"They're making sure that should the time come and if you get into a period of adversity ... that you can't just strike a match and light up a manufacturing industry if you need it. Once it's gone it's gone."

Manufacturing Minister Kim Carr said "all strength" to the elements within the Liberal party who supported Australian manufacturing.

"Mr Abbott has made a great play of putting on the fluoro vest and going around to factory after factory and expressing sympathy with the struggles that blue collar workers are facing," Senator Carr told ABC Radio.

"He's actually got to make a commitment to the future for blue collar workers in this country and he has to appreciate the reality of economics, not the theory, not the zealotry that we see from some sections of the academic opinion. He has to actually appreciate the harsh reality."

Opposition industry spokeswoman Sophie Mirabella, who has advocated a review of the coalition's policy, said Labor was responsible for the state of the car industry costing 130,000 jobs in the last 3.5 years.

Labor had made nearly $2 billion in broken promises to the industry by shredding the green car innovation fund, the cash for clunkers program, and the LPG vehicle scheme, she said.

"Labor's litany of car industry policy failures and unaccountable and unsustainable spending provides no certainty or long-term outcomes for the car industry or the Australian public.

"Car manufacturers now talk about sovereign risk in Australia when considering local investment decisions."

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