Prime Minister Julia Gillard says union leaders were confused if they thought Labor was considering holding an inquiry into Australia’s ailing manufacturing sector.
The prime minister has been criticised by union leaders as well as outspoken backbencher Doug Cameron and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for ruling out an inquiry when many thought one was on the cards. Ms Gillard met with industry and union leaders on Monday.
Australian Workers Union boss Paul Howes and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) national secretary Dave Oliver both walked away from the talks thinking Ms Gillard was considering an inquiry. But the prime minister says they were mistaken.
“It’s possible for people to take some different takes out of a conversation,” Ms Gillard told reporters in Wollongong. “What I said yesterday was that I wasn’t looking at a free-ranging, free-wheeling inquiry into manufacturing.”
The Labor leader said her focus was on action and she didn’t want to be held back by an inquiry “which would inevitably take some time”.
However, Ms Gillard said the government would take the best of expert advice along the way. Mr Howes said he was “shocked” the government had ruled out an inquiry, accusing the prime minister of changing her tune.
At Monday’s meeting Ms Gillard made it very clear she was open to considering an inquiry, he told reporters.
“The words said by various government ministers this morning was a surprise.
“It (an inquiry) makes sense and it’s the right thing to do.”
Senator Cameron described the decision not to hold an inquiry as politically dumb and economically irresponsible.
“The ideological obsession with free trade is counter-productive,” the former AMWU national secretary said.
“It’s pretty arrogant to think that free trade has all the answers.”
Mr Abbott wasn’t about to be caught out again on the free-trade argument after being accused of appealing to protectionist sentiments for suggesting on Monday there could be a case for maintaining a heavy manufacturing base “on the grounds of national security”.
But, visiting a plastic pot plan manufacturer in Melbourne, the opposition leader was happy to buy into the politics of the inquiry spat.
“I really don’t know what’s happening with this government,” he told reporters. “They obviously told senior union officials yesterday that they were going to have an inquiry and then after I announced the coalition’s policy review process they got cold feet.”
Mr Abbott said if the government didn’t know its own mind it couldn’t be trusted to run the country.
After visiting BlueScope Steel’s Port Kembla plant, Ms Gillard insisted the government already had policies in place to support local manufacturing.
“We need to keep delivering those policies and plans,” she said, adding there was also $10 million to help sacked steel workers and $30 million to restructure the Illawarra region’s economy.
The Australian Greens said that if Labor does not examine the manufacturing sector the minor party would move for a parliamentary inquiry when politicians returned to Canberra in mid-September.
