Senator FERGUSON (3:09 PM) —You always know when the Labor Party are not fair dinkum, because they ask Senator Schacht to open the batting. When Senator Schacht opens the batting, you can be sure it is an issue of not too great importance. They call in Senator Quirke or one or two others to come in behind to fill in the gaps. Senator Schacht asked a question himself about `mobile' refineries. The only thing that has been particularly mobile in South Australia is Senator Schacht's position on the Senate ticket, which Senator Quirke and Senator Bolkus will continue to make sure is pretty mobile.

Senator Schacht has had a pretty mobile position on the front bench of the Labor Party, having ruined the situation of small business when he was small business minister. He has held a variety of other portfolios, but he has been consistently mobile. Every job that Senator Schacht has ever tried to do he has not done well, so he has had to be moved to another one. That is why his position on the Senate ticket currently is very mobile, some would say fluid, in South Australia.

This is no doubt why Senator Schacht got up and asked his scaremongering question about the refinery and the attitude of the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources towards the petroleum code, towards doing something for the petroleum industry. If Senator Schacht and his colleagues on the other side had supported the government, the situation would be better than it is today. It is all very well for Senator Schacht to say that the minister has walked away from the petroleum industry; the Labor Party have walked away from the petroleum industry, and they have left a situation which is very difficult for the people involved in petrol reselling and in other areas.

Senator Schacht raised the issue first about Senator Minchin's position in relation to the car industry and to the number of sales being made. The Labor Party will never take into account the fact that last year in Australia there were record sales of motor vehicles. The motor vehicle sales for this year are slightly less. Is there any reason why the sales should not be slightly less in Australia this year after a record year last year? It is still the second highest number of sales on record. The scaremongers from the other side of this chamber are trying to tell us that there is a crisis because we are having only the second highest sales on record in the motor vehicle industry.

We have had continual questions of Senator Minchin, asking what the position is and what the government is going to do—as if, in relation to sales tax or any of the taxes that apply, a government is likely to telegraph any changes that may or may not take place in the future. This opposition is continually presenting to this chamber that the car industry is in diabolical strife, when it is having the second best year on record. The government will continue to monitor the issue of motor vehicle sales closely. This government has always taken particular account of how the actual sales are going before making any decisions.

Contrast that with the attitude of the Labor Party. Senator George Campbell will remember this, because he was not in parliament at the time. In 1993 we heard the then Prime Minister say that that government would bring sales tax down to 15 per cent to match the proposed GST at the time. This was government policy. In order to help the car industry, they said that they would bring the sales tax down to 15 per cent. And what happened immediately after the election, when Prime Minister Keating was returned to government? He was not content to just put the sales tax back up to 20 per cent; he put it up to 22 per cent.

After promising the Australian people a 15 per cent sales tax, Prime Minister Keating put it up to 22 per cent. And what was the level of car sales in the early 1990s? Less than half, in most cases, what it is today. To this Labor opposition, who cry wolf about what is happening in the car industry and what effect the GST might have, I say: just look at your own record. Currently, the car industry is going through the second best year it has ever had. I say to the senators opposite: don't you forget that.