Liberal member Dr Sharman Stone's comments imo will be very damaging to the government. Dr Stone has a conscience and cares about the workers and growers being put at risk withe the decisions made on SPC Ardmona. Obviously Dr Stone is a person of great integrity who will not cover for lies. the following paragraphs in the SMH article are telling.
Why the government is destroying its own credibility is beyond me.
Extract from Sydney Morning Herald:
"Asked if that constituted ''lying'', Dr Stone said: "It's not the truth, that's right, it's lying.''
"What really upsets me most . . . the federal government didn't say, look we'd love to help but we just don't have the money right now," she added.
"What they said was, we're not going to help because it is the amazing wages and conditions that have knocked this company for six."
Dr Stone said such arguments were "just wrong".
"If I was in Parliament I couldn't say 'liar' because it's unparliamentary.''
Rather than overly generous wages and conditions, it was the "dumping" of cheap products by supermarket chains, the Coles and Woolworths duopoly, the rise in imports, the floods and 10 years of drought that contributed to SPC's troubles, Dr Stone said.
"This is a witch hunt," she added. "And sorry, I don't like witch hunts, which are . . . unfair and in this case could lead to us losing an industry."
In a decision taken last Friday that could risk up to 3000 jobs in Victoria's Goulburn Valley, Mr Abbott supported Liberal economic dries including Mr Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann to knock back SPC's request for government co-investment.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce had backed the company's request, which would have triggered a $25 million investment from the Victorian government and ensured SPC's parent company, Coca-Cola Amatil, would spend up to $161 million on the canning facilities."
