Thank you Madam Speaker.
I don’t want to mince my words and I don’t want to pretend to the Parliament that this is anything other than a dark day for manufacturing in this country.
We have today received the very bad news, not entirely unexpected news, but very bad news, that Holden is to cease manufacturing in this country in 2017. 2,900 jobs will be gone by 2017 and thousands of jobs are at risk in up to 150 suppliers.
This follows on the withdrawal from motor manufacturing in our country of Mitsubishi some years ago and Ford’s announced 2016 close-down.
This was part of a world-wide restructure that amongst other things involved the closure of General Motors plants in Korea and the withdrawal of Chevrolet from Europe.
So, we shouldn’t think that motor manufacturing in this country has alone suffered bad news this day.
As the Managing Director of Holden has said and I thank him for his sober statement today on what must have been a sad and bitter day for him, Holden has been hit by a perfect storm; high costs, the high dollar and low volumes and that explains the decision that they have made.
Madam Speaker, now is the time for a strategic response to the difficulties in manufacturing and particularly to the difficulties in our motor industry.
It is not the time to play politics. It is not the time to indulge in the blame game. It is not the time to peddle false hope.
It is a time for a candid and constructive conversation with the Australian people and it is time for a considered and a constructive response from Government. That is exactly what this Government will be providing in coming days.
That strategic response starts with a review of the fundamental strengths of our country.
It starts with a review of the fundamental strengths of the areas which will be most impacted by the Holden close down in three years’ time.
We do have strengths in component manufacturing, we do have strengths in manufacturing, particularly for the mining sector, we have enormous strengths in research and development, in higher education and in biomedical science.
The Government will be announcing measures, in coming days that will build on the strengths that we have, and which will offer hope for the people of the regions impacted.
It will be a considered package of measures designed to rebuild confidence in the long-term economic future of those regions, in the long term future of manufacturing in this country.
As part of that, Madam Speaker, we will be talking to Toyota. They have long been the strongest motor manufacturer in this country and I want to say, Madam Speaker, that it is the Government’s strong wish that Toyota continue to manufacture in this country. It is the Government’s strong wish that Toyota continue to export from this country. We will be talking to them about the best ways of ensuring that that happens.
I accept, Madam Speaker, this is a sad bad day for everyone involved in the motor industry.
It is particularly a sad bad day for the workers of Holden, for the families of the workers of Holden and for the communities which are home to Holden’s major facilities in this country. There is no way that I can gloss over that; there is no way that I should gloss over that.
But Madam Speaker, the people of this country, the people of our industrial centres, have been through hard times before and they have come through hard times. They have flourished through hard times.
When BHP withdrew from steel-making in Newcastle, many people thought that this was the end of an era and yes Madam Speaker, it was the end of one era, it was the end of a grimy industrial era for Newcastle, but it certainly wasn’t the end of economic dynamism for Newcastle which has gone from strength to strength in the decade or so since that announcement.
While I accept that the economy of South Australia is fragile, while I accept that Adelaide in particular has suffered a series of knocks, it lost Mitsubishi just a few years ago and it did come through and there is much that we can be hopeful and optimistic about in the resilience of the South Australian economy particularly if government can do all that is necessary to ensure that the Olympic Dam mine expansion goes ahead.
So, Madam Speaker, this is a dark day, but there will be better days ahead.
There will be better days ahead and it is my determination – it is the determination of everyone in the government to work with the people of Australia, to work with the creative people of this country to ensure that the strengths, the great strengths of our society, the great strengths of our economy continue to be built on in the days and weeks and months ahead.
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