GM HOLDEN

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Finance. Can the minister inform the house about the purchase of Holden cars for use in the state fleet by expanding on the reference made in question time by the Premier on this point?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Finance, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:40): As the Premier pointed out, currently 74 per cent of the state government passenger fleet is sourced from Holden, Elizabeth. I think that is up from about 68 or 69 percent 12 months ago, so our commitment to Holden is on the increase. The member for Fisher may be interested to know that in December the Prime Minister appointed an auto industry advocate, Mr William Angove, former GM for Ford Indonesia, to approach the state governments, particularly the New South Wales and Queensland governments, to see whether they would make a commitment to the Australian auto industry.

Mr Angove's other function was to approach other fleets in the private sector to see whether they would also increase the number of Australian vehicles that they were running in their fleet. My namesake, Michael O'Brien, is the Victorian Treasurer. Whenever I have a meeting with Michael O'Brien, I like to point out that Michael O'Brien talks a lot of sense. Yesterday he made the comment in the Victorian media that he would like to see this issue progressed. I think it would be fair to say that both the Victorian and South Australian governments would like to see the level of activity by Mr Angove increased substantially in the light of yesterday's announcement.