GM HOLDEN

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): Supplementary question: at any time, Premier, did you seek to ensure, or even ask the federal government, that there be included in there an agreement, a minimum jobs guarantee?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:35): It was always the South Australian position that this was a material part of us reaching an agreement. We made this clear to everybody. The commonwealth knew that this was a material part of us reaching an agreement. It is not for us a matter of significance about how the commonwealth sought to construct the nature of its agreement with General Motors, except to know that there was sufficient money there to make sure that Holden carried out the billion-dollar investment in the new machine.

So, I did not seek to direct the Victorian government on what it sought, I did not seek to direct the commonwealth government on what it sought, but I made it very clear, certainly to the commonwealth government, that the minimum production levels and minimum employment levels and indeed the other very significant obligations about transition were included in the agreement that we would reach.