Holden holding out: Warren Truss presses carmaker for a quick decision
Version 0 of 1. The Abbott government has written to GM Holden demanding it make an immediate statement about the future of its Australian plants, even before the company hears the outcome of the crucial government-commissioned report from the Productivity Commission which will determine whether the Coalition offers long-term government funding. GM Holden’s managing director, Mike Devereux, told the commission on Tuesday morning his company had made “no decision” about its future in Australia and the company has been waiting to hear whether the Coalition would offer long-term subsidies. Devereux said the cost to Australia of losing the car industry would dwarf the cost to the budget of saving it. But the acting prime minister, Warren Truss, told parliament on Tuesday he had written to Devereux “asking that GM Holden make an immediate statement clarifying its intentions”. “They owe this to the workers of General Motors. Let us not go into a Christmas period without them making a clear commitment to manufacturing in this country," Truss said. And the treasurer, Joe Hockey, said the Holden boss should "come clean with the Australian people". "We want them to be honest about it; we want them to be fair dinkum," he said. Hockey said if he was running a business committed to a future in Australia he would not be saying he had not made a decision about its future. "Either you're here or you're not,” he said. “There are a hell of a lot of other businesses that would love to get the assistance the car industry is getting.” Labor said it left a special pot of money in the budget’s “contingency reserve” to fully cover car industry assistance until 2017, including assistance required to keep Holden’s manufacturing plants in Australia. “The money is there, they don’t need to make any call on the budget until 2017,” the former Labor industry minister Kim Carr told Guardian Australia. Carr has said the amount needed to keep Holden’s Australian manufacturing in Australia is less than $150m a year – out of a total $300m a year in additional car manufacturing assistance – and contends the government is “driving General Motors out of Australia” by refusing to announce its stance on this future car industry assistance. The contingency reserve as outlined in budget papers does not break down different purposes for which money may have been deposited, but Carr insists the former government set aside the funding as part of a deal with the company before the election. But the federal cabinet is divided about whether continued assistance should be offered, and the government and the company appear to be jockeying to avoid being blamed if Holden announces it is pulling out of Australia – a decision that would probably also spell the Australian demise of the country’s other remaining car manufacturer, Toyota. Holden employs 3,500 people at plants in Victoria and South Australia. The industry minister, Ian Macfarlane, pointed to the company’s public statements that no formal decision has been made on its future in Australia and said the government would make a decision about long-term assistance after the commission delivers an interim report this month and a final report in March. But it appears he has not convinced cabinet colleagues to allow him to develop a new car plan – with requirements that the companies invest and export Australian-made models – using the money set aside in the Automotive Transformation Scheme, which runs until 2020. Macfarlane said on Tuesday he was conducting a methodical process to ensure responsible outcomes for government spending, unlike Labor, which was “more than happy to walk down the road spraying out the taxpayers’ money”. Some federal ministers have long indicated privately they believe the company has already made an informal decision to leave, no matter what the government does, and are concerned that if the announcement is left until after the commission’s report early next year the government will be blamed for a decision that has already been taken. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |