Sharon Bird, Stephen Jones and Fiona Phillips were today stunned to hear Malcolm Turnbull boasting about relentlessly standing up for Australian jobs during his media appearances this morning.

Malcolm Turnbull todayvisited the Illawarra and simply confirmed last weeksnews that Australia will be exempt from the Trump tariffs.

While welcoming the news that Australia will be exempt from the Trump tariffs, the local Labor representatives were concerned that Malcolm Turnbull was completely ignoring concerns about world markets being flooded with dumped steel and aluminium following the Presidents decision.

He has also ignored business concerns that it currently costs $500,000 just to commence an anti-dumping investigation with the Commission with these cases costing millions in the long run.

The Australian Steel Association, BlueScope Steel and Bisalloy Steel gave evidence to this effect to the Senate Economics References Committee inquiry into Australias steel industry (page 101).

Labor last week released strong policies to toughen anti-dumping protections to protect our steel industry, manufacturing jobs and agricultural jobs and contacted three key elements:

• Labor will triple penalties for circumventing trade remedies;
• Labor will better resource the Anti-Dumping Commission;
• Labor will create a one-stop shop under a tougher regime to safeguard our steel, manufacturing and agricultural jobs now and into the future.

Despite his claim that he stands up for local jobs his actions tell a very different story:

• He backed cuts to penalty rates;
• He cut almost $3 billion from TAFE and apprentices;
• He has failed to invest in local infrastructure to support our economy and jobs growth;
• He has done nothing to address slow wage growth;
• He has done nothing to stop massive private health insurance increases;
• He has done nothing to reign in soaring electricity prices;
• He wants to give massive tax cuts to big business;
• He has no policies to address rising costs of housing and other cost of living increases.

Malcolm needs to stop talking the talk and actually start standing up for working class people struggling to get a job, struggling to keep a secure job and struggling to make ends meet.