LOUISE YAXLEY:
Good morning, Mr Abbott. Could you have saved thousands of Holden workers’ jobs by reversing your decision to cut $500 million from car industry assistance?
PRIME MINISTER:
We were more than happy to offer continuing generous assistance to Holden as part of the package of assistance which goes to the motor industry, but Holden were hit by a ‘perfect storm’, as they themselves have said – high costs, high dollar and small markets – and that, tragically, is why Holden won’t be manufacturing in this country after 2017.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
Jay Weatherill insists that the company wanted to stay and it wouldn’t have taken much from the Government to get them there, but it needed a reversal at least of that decision. Do you accept that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, a lot of people will play politics over this, Louise, but I don’t think that this is the time for playing politics or indulging in the blame game or pedalling false hope. The South Australian Labor Government wasn’t able to keep Mitsubishi. The former Labor government in Canberra wasn’t able to keep Ford beyond 2016. I think it’s very easy for people who are understandably upset to look for people to blame, but the fact is, Holden were doing it tough in this country; as they said in their statement yesterday, they were hit by a ‘perfect storm’ – the high dollar, high costs and small markets here in Australia.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
If that was a global decision because of the ‘perfect storm’, then why were your Ministers so aggressive about Holden in Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m not sure that that’s a fair description but certainly, Louise, it was important to ensure that the future was clarified and it was good that Holden decided they were going to clarify the future. There’s been rumours, if you like – intelligence, if you like – circulating for months that Holden were reconsidering their position and it’s good that it’s now been clarified.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
When that intelligence was circulating, should you or Minister Macfarlane have led a delegation to Detroit to try to get an answer?
PRIME MINISTER:
One thing that we weren’t going to do was just throw more money at a problem and there’s generous assistance available to the car industry. I certainly want to try to ensure that we keep Toyota in this country, because Toyota, unlike Holden, have got higher volumes and higher exports. But there is a quantum of money – it’s on the table, it’s available. What we weren’t going to do was put more money on the table and that I think is what some people were… they weren’t saying it out loud but that’s what they were demanding.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
You mean GM was demanding more money?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, Louise. I think what the Labor Party are trying to say right now is that more money would have solved the problem. Well, more money didn’t solve the Ford problem. The extra money that former Prime Minister Gillard gave to Holden a year or so back – and let’s not forget that the former Prime Minister announced that she’d guaranteed Holden’s future for ten years – in fact, that didn’t fix the problem.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
Now, you’ve spoken to Toyota this morning. They’ve publically said that GM’s decision puts unprecedented pressure on their ability to stay. Will Toyota go too?
PRIME MINISTER:
In the end, Louise, this is a matter for Toyota. I hope they stay and to Toyota’s credit, they have been prepared to say to their workforce, “look, we need to be competitive, we need to try to ensure that we can be just as productive as workforces in other parts of the Toyota global network”, and also, Toyota to their credit, have had a strong export programme and this is something that in more recent years, that Holden weren’t able to manage.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
So, they have different business models or approaches they’ve taken, but is the answer the same if it requires more money? Is there anything else you could or would offer Toyota to stay?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there is money on the table. There’s something like a billion dollars available to the motor industry over the next couple of years. This is very substantial assistance and look, it’s there and it’s available for motor manufacturing in this country.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
Does Toyota have to be saved to ensure that Australia keeps a manufacturing base of this sort of sophisticated manufacturing?
PRIME MINISTER:
We do have a very sophisticated manufacturing sector in this country. As a percentage of our economy, yes it’s slimmed down over the last five years, but whatever happens to the motor industry, we will continue to be a sophisticated manufacturing economy.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
Toyota faces those same conditions as you’ve acknowledged with high costs, high dollar, so should its workers prepare for the worst?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the last thing I want to do is spread gloom and doom, Louise, and I’d suggest that what we should be doing is look at our strengths. I think that under the right circumstances there’s no reason why Toyota can’t continue and certainly, the assistance that was available yesterday is available today and I certainly hope that Toyota can continue and to their credit, they have been prepared to level with their workforce and to their credit, they have been prepared to integrate their local manufacturing into their global operations.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
How much will it cost the federal government to support the two states most affected by this decision and the workers who are losing their jobs?
PRIME MINISTER:
Louise, we won’t be rushing out with rescue packages. What we’ll be doing is carefully considering this situation. Let’s not forget that the Holden workers will be employed until 2017 and Holden certainly will treat them well. There will be quite significant termination packages available to Holden workers. It’s not like they’re going to be sent out onto the street with nothing. So, we’ll be talking to the Victorian Government, to the South Australian Government about what we can do to build on the strength of the areas that will be impacted by these decisions.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
What do you say is the future for these workers? What jobs can they get beyond GM?
PRIME MINISTER:
These are all skilled workers, Louise. They are all very skilled workers. You do not work in the motor industry these days without having a very wide range of skills. These are employable people and my hope and my expectation is that they will not go from one job to no job; they will go from one job to a new job and certainly that was the case with the vast majority of the workers who left Mitsubishi a few years back, that was the case with the vast majority of the workers who left BHP in Newcastle.
We’re talking here about very capable people. We’re talking here about a dynamic and resilient economy and I think the last thing we should have going into Christmas is any gloom and doom, because we are in the business as a government, of making a strong economy stronger. We’re in the business as a nation, of building on our strengths.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
Mr Abbott, why did then those workers find out about this news when they heard leaks from senior Ministers to the ABC a week ago?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the workers were told by their General Manager yesterday – that’s what happened.
LOUISE YAXLEY:
What’s going on inside your government, though, that that was leaking?
PRIME MINISTER:
What’s going on is that we are doing our best to strengthen our economy and that’s what’s happening. Every day we are doing what we need to do to strengthen our economy and that’s why we’re trying to get taxes down and regulation down, Louise, and I know we’re not getting a lot of assistance from the Labor Party right now. The Labor Party has decided that it is going to blame the Government which hasn’t been there for a hundred days yet, for everything that goes wrong and they’re going to attempt to frustrate every element of the Government’s agenda including things that they supported themselves, just three months ago when they were in government. So, I accept that the Labor Party are out there not being helpful. I accept that, but look, what would you expect?
LOUISE YAXLEY:
Mr Abbott, thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you, Louise.
[ends]