Extract from The Guardian website:
Sharman Stone says employment minister's defence of helping Cadbury but not SPC is 'desperation politics'
- Daniel Hurst, political correspondent
- theguardian.com,
A Liberal MP has described as “cruel” the Abbott government’s attempt to justify its refusal to provide a grant to food processor SPC Ardmona in light of its pre-election pledge to chocolate maker Cadbury.
The Liberal MP for the Victorian seat of Murray, Sharman Stone, said the Cadbury grant was all about trying to win a marginal Tasmanian seat yet the loss of SPC Ardmona from her region would present a “real manufacturing emergency”.
"That is just desperation politics as people thrash about looking for excuses," Stone told Guardian Australia on Sunday.
Her warning against pitting industries against each other came after the employment minister, Eric Abetz, said comparisons between the two cases were unfair.
Abetz, being interviewed on ABC television on Sunday, was defending cabinet’s decision to reject SPC Ardmona’s $25m request, which was to be supplemented by $25m from the Victorian government and a larger investment by parent company Coca-Cola Amatil.
Cabinet’s decision on Thursday to not support the last remaining major fruit and vegetable processor in Australia was criticised by the opposition, unions and Stone, whose electorate includes Shepparton. SPC Ardmona warned last year it would be forced to close if the government refused to proceed with the $25m grant promised by the former Labor government. It was seeking to save its loss-making business by retooling and modernising.
Abetz was asked about the Coalition’s refusal to provide the requested industry assistance in light of its pre-election pledge to provide Cadbury with a $16m grant to support tourism and manufacturing in Tasmania.
“It’s not a fair comparison,” the Tasmanian-based minister said.
“All governments from time to time decide to make a contribution for the purposes of regional tourism infrastructure and that was part of the Cadbury’s deal, reinstituting the Cadbury factory tours that used to be very popular, used to be a drawcard to Tasmania.
“When you’ve got an economy shot, as it is in Tasmania, that was seen as a reasonable endeavour by the federal government to assist in enhancing the tourism effort in our state together with helping the dairy industry and creating another 200 factory jobs.”
Then opposition leader Tony Abbott announced before the election that the Coalition would provide $16m towards a $66m upgrade of the Cadbury Chocolate factory in Hobart “to boost innovation, support growth in local manufacturing jobs and expand tourism”.
Abetz said the emphasis of the package was on the regional tourism aspect, making it “substantially different” from the SPC Ardmona situation. Abetz said he would like the money to flow as soon as possible but the due diligence was still under way.
But Stone rejected the government's argument about the difference between the Cadbury and SPC Ardmona cases, saying it was "a nonsense" to pit tourism against food production and processing, and dairy producers against orchid growers.
"Everybody knows that the Cadbury's Hobart decision was all about marginal seats in an election campaign. To then try to justify that decision against the real manufacturing emergency of SPCA is just cruel."
Stone said tourists visited SPC Ardmona factory outlets to buy discounted products directly from the source and the region's fruit-picking opportunities drew about 10,000 international backpackers each year, supporting the growth of other businesses.
She urged Australians to buy SPC Ardmona products and to ask their parents' aged care homes about the source of peaches and other preserved fruits served to residents.
Earlier, Abetz said Stone was “doing the right thing by her electorate in defending her people and her electorate as much as possible” but the reality was that the company had the wherewithal to fix the problems and ensure it was viable.
Abetz said he did not believe cabinet’s decision would necessarily cost thousands of jobs in the Goulburn Valley, arguing SPC Ardmona had the potential to return to profit if it looked at its cost structures and “help themselves in clearly difficult circumstances”.
Abetz said the company was wrong to agree to “over-generous” conditions for the workers in early 2013, pointing to a “shiny tin allowance” for forklift drivers as an indication of excessive conditions in SPC Ardmona’s enterprise agreement with workers.
He referred to a provision in the enterprise agreement that says: “Employees who are forklift drivers and who are stacking pallets of bright cans shall be entitled to an allowance of 50 cents per hour.”
Abetz said the “shiny tin allowance” was removed in 1991 when SPC Ardmona was in financial strife.
“Here we are 20 years later, the company allegedly in a bit of strife, and guess what? The shiny tin allowance has crept back into the enterprise bargaining agreement,” he said.
“Companies need to learn from their own history that they cannot keep going down the same route time and time again and not learn the consequences of doing so. I believe the cabinet decision was the right decision. Do I feel for the people of Shepparton? Of course I do. The uncertainty isn’t good. But at the end of the day that is the company’s responsibility, the union’s and the workers’ responsibility to come together to make sure that this enterprise succeeds.”
Abbott, who indicated in December he would resist requests for “corporate welfare”, said on Thursday the cabinet’s decision was an important marker of the government’s approach to questions of industry assistance. He argued governments should provide the overall conditions for companies to flourish but individual businesses had to lead their own restructures.
Labor’s leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, said the government’s decision was disappointing.
She told Sky News on Sunday that the treasurer, Joe Hockey, was “running a hard line” on industry assistance after he was “browbeaten” into rejecting the GrainCorp foreign investment proposal.
She said Shepparton was not an area that had a lot of other employment opportunities.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions argued the government’s industry policy was “achieving nothing other than massive job losses and the decimation of the local manufacturing industry”.
The Liberal MP for the Victorian seat of Murray, Sharman Stone, said the Cadbury grant was all about trying to win a marginal Tasmanian seat yet the loss of SPC Ardmona from her region would present a “real manufacturing emergency”.
"That is just desperation politics as people thrash about looking for excuses," Stone told Guardian Australia on Sunday.
Her warning against pitting industries against each other came after the employment minister, Eric Abetz, said comparisons between the two cases were unfair.
Abetz, being interviewed on ABC television on Sunday, was defending cabinet’s decision to reject SPC Ardmona’s $25m request, which was to be supplemented by $25m from the Victorian government and a larger investment by parent company Coca-Cola Amatil.
Cabinet’s decision on Thursday to not support the last remaining major fruit and vegetable processor in Australia was criticised by the opposition, unions and Stone, whose electorate includes Shepparton. SPC Ardmona warned last year it would be forced to close if the government refused to proceed with the $25m grant promised by the former Labor government. It was seeking to save its loss-making business by retooling and modernising.
Abetz was asked about the Coalition’s refusal to provide the requested industry assistance in light of its pre-election pledge to provide Cadbury with a $16m grant to support tourism and manufacturing in Tasmania.
“It’s not a fair comparison,” the Tasmanian-based minister said.
“All governments from time to time decide to make a contribution for the purposes of regional tourism infrastructure and that was part of the Cadbury’s deal, reinstituting the Cadbury factory tours that used to be very popular, used to be a drawcard to Tasmania.
“When you’ve got an economy shot, as it is in Tasmania, that was seen as a reasonable endeavour by the federal government to assist in enhancing the tourism effort in our state together with helping the dairy industry and creating another 200 factory jobs.”
Then opposition leader Tony Abbott announced before the election that the Coalition would provide $16m towards a $66m upgrade of the Cadbury Chocolate factory in Hobart “to boost innovation, support growth in local manufacturing jobs and expand tourism”.
Abetz said the emphasis of the package was on the regional tourism aspect, making it “substantially different” from the SPC Ardmona situation. Abetz said he would like the money to flow as soon as possible but the due diligence was still under way.
But Stone rejected the government's argument about the difference between the Cadbury and SPC Ardmona cases, saying it was "a nonsense" to pit tourism against food production and processing, and dairy producers against orchid growers.
"Everybody knows that the Cadbury's Hobart decision was all about marginal seats in an election campaign. To then try to justify that decision against the real manufacturing emergency of SPCA is just cruel."
Stone said tourists visited SPC Ardmona factory outlets to buy discounted products directly from the source and the region's fruit-picking opportunities drew about 10,000 international backpackers each year, supporting the growth of other businesses.
She urged Australians to buy SPC Ardmona products and to ask their parents' aged care homes about the source of peaches and other preserved fruits served to residents.
Earlier, Abetz said Stone was “doing the right thing by her electorate in defending her people and her electorate as much as possible” but the reality was that the company had the wherewithal to fix the problems and ensure it was viable.
Abetz said he did not believe cabinet’s decision would necessarily cost thousands of jobs in the Goulburn Valley, arguing SPC Ardmona had the potential to return to profit if it looked at its cost structures and “help themselves in clearly difficult circumstances”.
Abetz said the company was wrong to agree to “over-generous” conditions for the workers in early 2013, pointing to a “shiny tin allowance” for forklift drivers as an indication of excessive conditions in SPC Ardmona’s enterprise agreement with workers.
He referred to a provision in the enterprise agreement that says: “Employees who are forklift drivers and who are stacking pallets of bright cans shall be entitled to an allowance of 50 cents per hour.”
Abetz said the “shiny tin allowance” was removed in 1991 when SPC Ardmona was in financial strife.
“Here we are 20 years later, the company allegedly in a bit of strife, and guess what? The shiny tin allowance has crept back into the enterprise bargaining agreement,” he said.
“Companies need to learn from their own history that they cannot keep going down the same route time and time again and not learn the consequences of doing so. I believe the cabinet decision was the right decision. Do I feel for the people of Shepparton? Of course I do. The uncertainty isn’t good. But at the end of the day that is the company’s responsibility, the union’s and the workers’ responsibility to come together to make sure that this enterprise succeeds.”
Abbott, who indicated in December he would resist requests for “corporate welfare”, said on Thursday the cabinet’s decision was an important marker of the government’s approach to questions of industry assistance. He argued governments should provide the overall conditions for companies to flourish but individual businesses had to lead their own restructures.
Labor’s leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, said the government’s decision was disappointing.
She told Sky News on Sunday that the treasurer, Joe Hockey, was “running a hard line” on industry assistance after he was “browbeaten” into rejecting the GrainCorp foreign investment proposal.
She said Shepparton was not an area that had a lot of other employment opportunities.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions argued the government’s industry policy was “achieving nothing other than massive job losses and the decimation of the local manufacturing industry”.
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