Grievance Debate

GM HOLDEN

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (15:29): I want to respond on behalf of the opposition to today's developments at Holden, because they are very worrying for all who have a stake in the future of that company. It must be made clear in this house and to the people of South Australia that Labor's failure to adequately engage with Holden over 11 years, and in particular its failure to sign off on Holden's $275 million coinvestment last year, are the principal reasons the company faces an uncertain future today.

They are also the reasons workers are now being asked to accept pay cuts and improve productivity measures. The state Liberals are using the budget response this week to solidly reaffirm their support for a coinvestment package for Holden and to slam Labor for its complete and total failure and inaction. Federal and state Labor have had a chance to do more over recent years and they have failed.

Can I remind the house that this government, of which the current premier was a minister for the entire period, completely ignored manufacturing, preferring instead to talk up mining and defence. That was all we ever heard of: mining and defence. Manufacturing was categorised as some sort of a 'rust bucket' history upon which the state should no longer dwell, in the language that was used by the then premier and the then treasurer.

We always disagreed with that argument. We always argued that manufacturing should and does have a bright future if it properly transforms, but they did not want to have a bar of it. The current premier, apparently, was silent on the subject on his side of the house, because manufacturing was ignored.

The fact is that as far as SA investment and jobs are concerned, Holden is too important for state and federal governments to ignore. The $275 million coinvestment package, which includes $50 million from South Australia as a contribution, is essential, and it should have been locked in over a year ago when the proposal was first put to the current state Labor government. Instead they prevaricated, they delayed, they let it drag on, and now it is in hiatus, awaiting the outcome of a federal election. We should not be in that position.

Of course, we heard the current Premier threatening Holden about that funding when they announced redundancies and other measures, and certainly stretching the matter out. We have had the absolute insult of the current Prime Minister overturning the $500 million green car innovation fund that was put in place by her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, when he was prime minister. If we still had prime minister Rudd, perhaps we would still have that $500 million fund.

The SA Liberals will be standing right beside Holden in the years ahead and sending the same message of support for the automotive industry to anyone involved in the decision-making process. Labor's attempts to misrepresent the Coalition's position and the state Liberals' position are a complete disgrace. In response to comments made by the Premier in answer to questions today, could I just point out that the $1.5 million automotive transformation fund was put on the table when there were three carmakers.

There are now only two carmakers, and the coalition is going forward with a $1 billion fund, which comprises more than enough money to deal with the coinvestment package required by Holden. It was the Gillard Labor government that scrapped the car innovation fund; it is the state Labor government that has failed consistently over 11 years to do enough for manufacturing, and in particular for the car industry. They just left it to its own devices and now we find ourselves in the position that we are in today. It has all happened on Labor's watch.

A future Liberal state government will be completely committed to an accountable and sustainable well targeted coinvestment in Holden, and we will be relentless in our support. Prime Minister Gillard and Premier Weatherill and a raft of Labor ministers, both federal and state, have made false promises and false starts, and have delivered ruin as far as Holden is concerned.

The companies, the workers and the union will need to work together now to work through the current issue in regard to remuneration and productivity questions. We wish them well. If we were in government we would be doing everything we could to support them. We hope that this government is doing likewise, but we have serious doubts as to whether it is. Frankly, the mess in the car industry has all happened on Labor's watch. It is their responsibility; they created the problem and they have done nothing to fix it.

Time expired.