QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what’s your reaction to the closure of Toyota by 2017?
PRIME MINISTER:
This is obviously devastating news for everyone involved with Toyota. It’s devastating for me and for the Government. It’s devastating for Premier Denis Napthine and for the Victorian Government as well. I will be talking further with Toyota later this evening. I’ll be talking with the Premier later this evening, but nothing that we say or do can limit the devastation that so many people will feel at this point.
The important thing is to remember that while some businesses close, other businesses open; while some jobs end, other jobs start, but the challenge for government at all levels is to try to ensure that there are more businesses starting than there are finishing, that there are more jobs being created than there are ending and I’d like to reassure the people of Australia that that is the constant focus of the Commonwealth Government: to ensure that we have a strong economy where the number of new jobs outweighs the number of closing jobs; the number of jobs starting more than matches the number of jobs closing down. I’m confident that that will continue to be the case. It’s been the case in this country for as long as any of us can remember. At a time like this, the important thing is to remember that we are a creative people, we are a capable people, and while this is devastating and disappointing news, nothing that I say can limit the impact of this devastation and disappointment today, there will be better days in the future.
QUESTION:
Have you done everything you can to try and save those 2,000 jobs?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it’s interesting that in the brief conversation that I had earlier today with the very senior management of Toyota, they said that they have had nothing but help and encouragement from successive Australian governments, including this one, and while I’m not in any way trying to avoid my own responsibilities – not in any way am I trying to avoid my own responsibilities – those responsibilities are fundamentally to ensure that we have a strong economy, with taxes that are as low as possible, with regulation which is as light as possible, with productivity which is as high as possible, because under those circumstances we maximise the conditions for new businesses to start and for existing businesses to expand.
[ends]