SA premier urges Australians to keep buying Holdens to support workers

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/19/sa-premier-urges-australians-to-keep-buying-holdens-

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The South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, has urged Australians to continue buying Holden vehicles as a crucial step to sustaining the workforce in the four years before the company’s exit from Australia.

Weatherill stressed the scale of the economic challenge facing the state as he emerged from a “very positive meeting” in Adelaide with component suppliers, union and peak body representatives.

The Labor premier urged Australians to support Holden to ensure the workforce and supply chain was sustained until the 2017 closure of its domestic manufacturing operations.

“Most crucially we still have to continue buying Holdens,” he said.

Weatherill was unrepentant about his hard line against the Abbott government’s “inadequate” $60m assistance pledge.

The prime minister had earlier labelled Weatherill’s criticism as “embarrassing” in light of South Australia’s refusal to contribute to the fund. On Wednesday, Tony Abbott had announced a “$100m fund” for South Australia and Victoria, where 2,900 jobs will be lost when Holden shuts its carmaking operations. This fund – intended to boost overall investment conditions and “support economically responsible initiatives” – would include $60m from the commonwealth, $12m from Victoria and potential contributions from South Australia and Holden.

Weatherill said South Australia was prepared to spend $50m on assistance but would not “participate in some fit-up”.

“I’m not going to do or say anything that’s going to authorise this package – it’s just inadequate,” he said.

The former federal industry minister Greg Combet – appointed by the South Australian government to help deal with the Holden transformation – agreed that the federal government’s response was inadequate, saying support for employees and businesses to diversify and gain access to global markets would be costly.

“The Abbott government has taken $500m out of the automotive transformation scheme. That was one of the key things that I think would have been conditioning General Motors’ thinking about the viability of their operations here, so they’ve made a $500m saving on what had been allocated,” Combet said.

“The second thing is that the previous government, of which I was a part, also allocated $215m to Holden’s operations to work with a $1bn commitment from General Motors and commitments from the South Australian and Victorian governments. That’s now a saving for the Abbott government as well, that $215m.

“In that context $100m falls a fair way short of what’s really needed here.”

The Victorian Liberal manufacturing minister, David Hodgett, participated in the automotive industry roundtable meeting in Adelaide on Thursday.

Hodgett said Victoria and South Australia faced an “enormous task” in recovering from the Holden closure and would “advocate in the strongest possible terms” for significant extra commitments from the federal government.

“I think we’ve got a common goal,” he said.

But Hodgett welcomed Abbott’s announcement on Wednesday as a good first step and called on all sides to “put politics aside” and work together in a positive manner. Hodgett indicated Victoria would be prepared to consider increasing its $12m pledge and he also wanted to see Holden contribute to the fund.

Underlining the risk that the last remaining Australian carmaker - Toyota - might follow Holden to the exit, Hodgett said: “The importance of Toyota to both our states cannot be underestimated.”

Weatherill said the message from the meeting was clear. “This is a massive challenge,” he said, “but the people at that meeting are up to the challenge. This will require an enormous amount of effort over what is a relatively limited timeline to make these dramatic changes, so there is a massive sense of urgency.”

Weatherill said many of the component makers were led by enterprising individuals who were up to the challenge of restructuring, but they needed support from governments.

Weatherill said work was also needed to develop new markets and products and manage the uncertainty surrounding the Holden decision. The manufacturing industry employed many talented workers, who must be encouraged to believe the sector had a future, he said.

The premier said the meeting discussed a plan to help with the transition and Combet would finetune it in collaboration with industry in “coming days and weeks”.

Combet said he would focus on the interests of the workers affected by Holden’s decision and saving as many jobs as possible, ensuring the growth of a “vibrant, growing economy” in South Australia, and assisting the component manufacturers to adjust and diversify their businesses.

Combet said he wanted to work with General Motors to ensure some of the suppliers were able to continue supplying parts to the company internationally.

“There’s no reason why I think in working with General Motors that we can’t get more of their local supplies into the international supply chain.”

Combet would also pay attention to the future of the Holden site and how it could be utilised.

The South Australian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, John Camillo, said suppliers could explore opportunities in defence, mining and agriculture.

Abbott used an interview with an Adelaide radio station on Thursday to describe his $60m pledge as “pretty big” in the current fiscal environment. He said it was more than the commonwealth contributed to earlier packages relating to Ford and Mitsubishi closures and criticised Weatherill for not yet committing money to the new fund.

“This is the biggest quantum of money that the federal government has so far put on the table. The South Australian government offered $10m towards the Mitsubishi adjustment package and there’s nothing at all from South Australia towards the Holden adjustment package,” Abbott said.

“I just think that’s pretty embarrassing for Jay Weatherill to be complaining that the commonwealth isn’t putting in enough when he’s putting in nothing.”

A spokeswoman for Weatherill said the South Australian government was prepared to put money on the table but wanted the federal government to increase its contribution.

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