Member for Braddon Sid Sidebottom, and Industry Minister Kim Carr’s $25 million splurge of taxpayers’ money today to food processor Simplot shows even more desperation from Labor.
Tasmanians can obviously now expect to hear a tsunami of unfunded promises and desperate lies from Mr Sidebottom and Labor over the next week.
Shadow Industry Minister Sophie Mirabella and Senator for Tasmania Richard Colbeck said Labor’s long-overdue attempt to help the food processing sector just days before the election is an affront after the damage that six years of Labor Government has inflicted on the sector.
They said that subsidising individual projects was a bandaid solution, and no substitute for considered policies that help businesses to be economically viable over the long term.
“That is what food processors across the country are saying and is what the Labor Government doesn’t understand,” said Mrs Mirabella.
“We will reserve our position on this grant until we see the full details of this deal – including an explanation of the cuts that have been made to other parts of the Industry portfolio to pay for it.”
“Labor tries to put the entire blame for industry woes at the feet of the GFC and the high Australian dollar, but they forget all the costs they have imposed on industry over the last six years,” Senator Colbeck said.
Among the havoc wreaked by Labor on businesses like Simplot has been:
• its industrial relations changes, that have put the unions back in control and added cost;
• the introduction of the Carbon Tax, which has added millions of dollars every year to the cost of doing business;
• its changes to shipping regulations, which have cost Simplot over $1.5 million per year in shipping costs and caused them to lose markets, even when we have not seen one extra Australian vessel on the Australian coast; and
• the introduction of Labor’s flawed star rating system, which will cost Simplot $3 million to implement, and yet give cream cheese a higher health rating than an apple!
Mrs Mirabella and Senator Colbeck said that Labor just doesn’t understand business. In contrast, the Coalition is taking a careful and considered approach to our funding commitments and we remain in discussion with a number of companies about their funding requests.
“Only the Coalition has a real plan to grow the Tasmanian economy and remove the unnecessary cost imposed on business by Labor,” Senator Colbeck said.
SENATOR THE HON RICHARD COLBECK Senator for Tasmania Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation, Industry and Science
