"A separate analysis by Fairfax Media highlighted that a typical full time worker at SPC Ardmona is paid about $50,000 a year – significantly less than the average ordinary hours wage in manufacturing of nearly $67,000. The average worker in Australia earns just shy of $74,000. SPC Ardmona managing director Peter Kelly said it had made "significant improvements" in productivity and had cut jobs by a third. He said its problems were not from labour costs or productivity, but rather a high dollar which hurt exports and allowed a "flood" of cheap imports since 2009. “In that period market share of private label canned fruit grew to 58 per cent today, while SPC Ardmona canned fruit share declined to 33 per cent. Our export market volumes declined by 90 per cent in the past five years.’’ Local Liberal MP Sharman Stone on Tuesday accused Mr Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey of lying. Asked on ABC Radio whether she thought Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey are "actually, really lying when they’re saying it’s about this issue [the workplace agreement]", Dr Stone responded: "Well they’re not speaking the reality." Asked if that constituted "lying", Dr Stone said: "It’s not the truth, that’s right, it’s lying."
