HOST: A short while ago I spoke to the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard. I began by asking her whether she was surprised by Ford's decision to pull out yesterday. Here's what she had to say.
PM: We had been briefed about Ford's decision; the Minister for Innovation and Industry, Greg Combet, was briefed on Sunday.
So obviously we did have some time to prepare and to work with the Victorian Government in order to announce the streams of support and assistance that I announced yesterday.
HOST: Ford has been paid over $1 billion in subsidies throughout the past decade. Will you try and get some of that money back for the Australian taxpayer?
PM: No we won't be. That money's been paid over time under the Government I lead, under the Government Kevin Rudd led and then under John Howard's Government as well.
What we've particularly authorised in relatively recent times is $34 million worth of support, and that is support for the models that are in production now and will continue in production until October 2016.
HOST: Will you reconsider the money that's continuing to be paid to both Holden and Toyota to keep producing cars here?
PM: I think supporting the car industry is important for our nation's future. It's important to the future of manufacturing.
You would have seen that Holden and Toyota have both verified as the news about Ford has broken, that they do intend to continue to make cars in Australia. So the Government assistance that's been pledged to them will continue to flow.
HOST: Prime Minister, I mean, Holden's commitment is just to 2022, granted that's six years more than what Ford has committed to, 2016. But isn't it just delaying the inevitable?
PM: I don't think so. I think we can be a country that continues to manufacture cars. And I think manufacturing cars is so important as a skill and innovation driver across manufacturing.
Around a million Australians work in manufacturing and when you go to manufacturing establishments inevitably you meet people who got their start in the car industry.
And we do need to remember even with this bad news from Ford, that Ford will continue to employ people in Australia including more than 1,000 people in design and engineering work.
So I think overall we want to see the car industry continue. We want the Australian economy to have many sources of strength. And that's why we have taken this co-investment approach.
I do have a real sense that Ford owes the communities of Geelong and Broadmeadows, and I am calling on Ford to make a very generous contribution to the funds that we are establishing with the Victorian Government to support economic diversification and new jobs in Geelong and Broadmeadows.
HOST: Let's be honest, Ford is run out of America. They're not going to pump one single dollar more into Geelong or Broadmeadows than what they have to, will they?
PM: I think that's remains to be seen. I am certainly calling on them to do so.
HOST: Okay, do you think you will have any success though?
PM: Well I believe that they do owe that to the local communities and we will certainly keep pressing the case.
HOST: Graham Richardson, your former colleague in the Labor Party, says that car making in Australia must now go the way of the dodo. Do you agree?
PM: Well obviously I don't.
HOST: It occurs to me that we don't have a plan B. Like if the resources industry slows down seriously, if all the growth projections don't pan out as expected, then the Australian economy would be stuffed, wouldn't it?
PM: Absolutely not, no Tom. And that is not true of our economic indicators now.
That is underestimating the strength in other parts of the economy where we are seeing export growth, and it's misunderstanding the transition we are in.
We as a Government have known for a long time that the resources boom was going to move from the big investment phase when you are constructing huge new projects and there are thousands of workers on site doing the construction. To the production phase where there are less workers, you're getting the ore or the gas out of the ground, and you're still making very good money. In fact that is the time you make the money, you're making money selling it around the world.
So we've always known this transition was going to happen and we've planned for it. That's why last year we put out the Asian Century white paper to guide the next period of economic growth for our country.
And why we've been putting in place the things we will need to fuel that economic growth; infrastructure investments, the National Broadband Network, a clean energy future, and the very important investments we've been making into the skills and capacities of the Australian people.
More uni places than ever before, more apprenticeships than ever before, now of course a new investment and improvement agenda for schools.
HOST: Prime Minister, yesterday I spoke to Bob Katter, just coming back to the demand for Australian cars, and he was surprised as I was that it was not compulsory for all federal government departments and agencies to buy solely Australian made vehicles.
He wants to introduce a private members bill into the Parliament to change this. Would you support it?
PM: Well for us he doesn't need to. We have, as a Federal Government, very clear purchasing guidelines.
People have to get Australian made vehicles unless there is not an Australian made vehicle that is fit for the purpose. Obviously there are some specialist vehicles that governments have.
And we have been urging the same approach on our state government colleagues - the Victorian State Government does have a comparable approach to the Federal Government. But some other states around the country don't.
So we've been saying to them please, get on board and have the same Australian made policy that we do.
HOST: If I could just also turn your attention to another issue. Sadly Hazel Hawke died in the last 24 hours. Would you describe her, as we have here, as the quintessential Australian woman?
PM: I certainly would describe her as a wonderful Australian woman. And I think the courage she has shown with such a cruel, such a horrible illness, the courage she has shown in the face of that I think has really inspired people.
HOST: Is there any chance you will offer her a state funeral?
PM: The family specifically said that they want a private family funeral.
HOST: Okay, obviously we have to honour those wishes.
HOST: Finally Ms Gillard, the workers who will lose their jobs within three years at Geelong and Broadmeadows. Is it going to be - I can't see how it's going to be easy to retrain them. We're talking about people that might have spent their entire adult working lives at the Ford motor company.
What would you say to those men and women?
PM: What I'd say to those men and women is yesterday would have been one of the toughest days of their lives. And they would be spending a lot of time today and over the weekend with family and friends thinking it through.
We will be there to support them and what I can say is, when you look back on things like the closure of Mitsubishi in South Australia, government worked with the employees there to find new opportunities and the results were very good in terms of getting people the next opportunity in their lives.
So we will be there supporting the individual workers. But we will also be there supporting the communities of Geelong and Broadmeadows.
I don't want people to feel like they're going to just be left on the wayside, left behind. They won't be.
We will be there to help and support.
HOST: I guess that's good to hear. We'll leave it there Prime Minister, thank you so much for your time.
PM: Thank you.