Senator FORSHAW (1:21 PM) —Today I rise to relate details of a tragedy in rural Australia. It is unfortunate that this is an increasing situation in rural and regional Australia brought about in many cases by the policies of this current government but also, as in the case that I will show, by the absolute neglect and disinterest of this government. I refer to the situation of the Grafton meatworks. I did make some brief remarks about this in an appropriation speech this morning, but I would like to put on the record details of what has occurred with the Grafton meatworks and particularly the lack of action by this government.

The South Grafton Abattoir, the Grafton meatworks, is a company that was owned and operated by the Gilbertson family from Victoria from 1980 to 1997. Prior to 1980, it had a long and proud history as a cooperative meatworks. I am sure the Gilbertson family is well known to many members of parliament for its involvement in a range of industries, particularly for many years in the meat industry. Since about 1901 this family has been involved in the meat industry—operating abattoirs, small goods factories and retail butcher shops. They also today have substantial interests in other activities such as land development in Victoria.

A few years ago the Gilbertson family sold most of their interests in the meat industry to Japanese companies, but they retained ownership of the South Grafton Abattoir. The South Grafton Abattoir, located of course in Grafton, is owned and operated by a holding company known as J.J. Gilbertson Pty Ltd. It has its head office in Moonee Ponds in Victoria. I am advised that the two principals are Mr Ian Gilbertson and Mr George Gilbertson, who also live in Victoria.

However, the workers employed at the South Grafton Meatworks were employed by two separate companies called R.J. Gilbertson (Qld) Pty Ltd and Giltech Pty Ltd. The directors of these two companies that were employing the workers were Ian and George Gilbertson. So we had a situation where the premises, the infrastructure, the assets of the company, the meatworks themselves, were owned by one company and the workers at the establishment were employed by two separate companies. But both companies, thought seperate legal entities, had the same persons as directors. That is important because of what has recently transpired.

On 7 October 1997 the ANZ bank, which had issued a line of credit, decided that further funding arrangements to the company should cease as it was having difficulty trading and it appointed directors of a chartered accounting firm in Victoria to act as manager-receiver of the company. At that time of appointment, the company owed the workers substantial amounts of money. In the order of $1.8 million was owed in accrued leave entitlements, such as annual leave, sick leave and long service leave. As a result of further events—the employees were terminated—they were also owed around $1.2 million in redundancy and severance pay entitlements.

After the company was put under an administrator, the meat workers union representing the employees cooperated with the administrator to the point where they agreed to reduce their paid working time to two days per week to help the company to continue operating and reduce some of its costs. However, that situation did not lead to any substantial improvement. On 12 December 1997, just two weeks before Christmas, 300 workers were terminated by the Gilbertson company and the meatworks was closed.

At the time the workers were terminated they were not paid any of their entitlements—amounting to $3 million in both accrued leave, severance and redundancy payments. Subsequently, the administrator has paid some 16 per cent of the entitlements to the workers, obviously as a result of assessing the amount owed to the various creditors, including the workers, and making a partial payout. But clearly a substantial amount of money is still owed to the workers. In view of the fact that the company had substantial debts of around $9 million, it is unlikely that the workers will ever be fully paid their lawful entitlements.

I am sure that senators and members of parliament are already aware of the tragic situation that has occurred at Cobar—the amounts involved there are substantially greater—where the Ashanti company just closed the mine and flew the country. This situation at Grafton is another example of employment in the rural sector in this country being affected by company closures and, further, where the workers, who have slaved for many years—in the case of the Grafton meatworks' employees some for over 35 years—are terminated without any of their entitlements being paid out.

There is a range of concerns that I am investigating at the moment with respect to the operations of the Gilbertson company. Requests have been made for the relevant ministers and I understand the Australian Securities Commission to look at the activities of this company over the past few years. I will leave that for another time.

I just want to say to the Gilbertson company directors, Mr Ian and George Gilbertson, who continue to reside in their mansion in Victoria and still have all of their other business interests in their other companies to ensure that they continue to get paid and live as multimillionaires, I am not going to let this one go. I am going to get to the bottom of it. I am going to expose just precisely what has happened and also ensure that the public of Australia know the activities of companies like the Gilbertsons'. When workers are left stranded and when their families are placed in a situation of not only being unemployed but also being unable to get even their lawful entitlements, those companies should not be allowed to go unchallenged. I will pursue that further.

What has happened subsequently? After the meatworks closed and 300 workers just two weeks prior to Christmas were put out on the street, approaches were made to the federal government to give them some assistance, to see if something could be done to have the meatworks reopened because it was one of the major employers in Grafton. I see Senator Boswell is here. He would appreciate the importance of that enterprise in that town.

Approaches were made to the Prime Minister (Mr Howard) and to Minister Anderson, the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy. No response. Not interested. Indeed, when the workers' representatives, the union, finally got to meet Minister Anderson it was only by virtue of the good fortune that he happened to be in Grafton and they went along and virtually ensured that he had to talk to them.

I am advised by one of the workers there that, when they were discussing this issue with Mr Anderson, he suggested that maybe one of the problems with the company was that there was too much workers compensation, too much sick leave. What a disgraceful thing to tell workers who have just been sacked without being paid their entitlements—and some of them had worked more than 30 years for that company. What a terrible thing for a minister to suggest.

I want to know why this government has not done a damn thing to help get those meatworks reopened. The Carr government and the local state member, Harry Woods, now the Minister for Regional Development and Rural Affairs in the New South Wales government, have done everything possible to work with the major creditor, the bank, and with potential purchasers to see if these meatworks can be reopened. They have offered concessions in respect to such issues as payroll tax and stamp duty to see if that can be brought about. But the federal government remains absolutely silent. It does not appear to be interested in the issue.

Also, what has the NFF done about this? I have not seen or heard one statement from Mr McGauchie, Mr Hoolihan, Mr Ferguson or any of the other representatives of the NFF about how the government should try to assist employment in rural Australia—not one word. The NFF was quite prepared years ago to put money into supporting a meatworks in the Northern Territory at Mudginberri. Why? Because it was a non-union operation. But where is the NFF now when there is a meatworks in Grafton that needs its support and needs its advocacy? It is silent, but it is not so silent down on the Melbourne waterfront where it is trying to stir up a political dispute simply for its own political and ideological ends.

Senator Ian Macdonald —Good work they're doing too.

Senator FORSHAW —According to you they are. But they are doing absolutely nothing for 300 workers and their families in the town of Grafton. You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You do not give a damn about these people, but you get out there and talk about how you are going to assist the NFF to take on the wharfies.

Why don't you direct your attention to the real issues that are confronting rural Australia? Why don't you do something to support those workers and their families from Cobar? They are Australians, they are workers and they are entitled to some support. But they get nothing from you, nothing from the National Party and nothing from this government. Frankly, I think it is a disgrace.

I have really only just started to draw attention to this issue today. I can assure you that I am going to have plenty more to say and I will continue to expose this government and some of their supporters, such as the Gilbertson family, for the despicable and disgraceful actions that they have taken in regard to decent hardworking employees in rural and regional Australia.