Question Time

GM Holden Workers

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:38): I seek leave to make an explanation before asking the Minister for Automotive Transformation a question about the imminent closure of Holden's Elizabeth plant.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Tomorrow marks the end of a significant period of manufacture in our state's history: the closure of Holden heralds the end of car manufacturing, not just in this state but in this country. At its peak in the 1960s Holden employed some 24,000 Australians across seven facilities, and was exporting cars to Africa, the Middle East, South-East Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean.

We all know the history of Holden and the slow demise of the car industry since the early 2000s. Despite the political football that the closure of the car manufacturer has turned into in recent years, it is important we recognise the many thousands of people, often generations within families, who have worked for, with and alongside one of the country's biggest employers throughout its long history. I sincerely hope those employees have received the help they need to transition to the next role, and will leave tomorrow knowing their contribution to Australia's manufacturing history will be not forgotten.

Regarding recent experiences in car manufacturing interstate, the union estimates that the recent closure of Toyota's plant in Altona placed the figure of the workforce who had already found full-time employment at 5 per cent. Recent survey data from the closure of Ford's Australian manufacturing operation has shown that about 50 per cent of Ford workers made redundant have found full-time employment in the year since it ceased operations. Compounding this figure, 100 per cent of the workforce still looking for employment are concerned about their chances of finding full-time employment. My questions to the minister are:

1. Can the minister provide figures on the number of ex-Holden employees, and soon to be ex-employees, who have found permanent full-time positions—and I reiterate, permanent full-time positions?

2. Can you provide figures of those still searching for full-time employment, or are currently underemployed?

3. What point of difference does Holden's closure have to allay its employees from the concerns facing ex-Ford and Toyota employees in terms of job security?

4. Finally, what outlook in terms of full-time employment can these workers finishing up on Friday expect to have over the next 12 months?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:40): I thank the honourable member for his question. It is very tempting and it would be very easy to reiterate some of the points I have made about how we got to where we are today and just how it didn't need to be this way.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: But he has asked some serious questions in terms of employment outcomes for those who have been involved in the automotive industry. Over the last, approximately, two years, Holden has about halved its workforce. There are about 950 who will finish up tomorrow as the last car rolls off the plant at Elizabeth. Of the about 1,000 who have left Holden over the last two years—and I don't have the figure in front of me, but off the top of my head I think it's about 83 per cent. It's certainly somewhere between 80 and 85 per cent that Holden estimate, from their research, have had employment outcomes. As I understand it, that is either in work or in full-time training.

That figure is a measurement that Holden use with their workers, so this isn't a government figure. We certainly know that Holden has been doing quite an extraordinary job in terms of working with their staff, with their workers, to transition. Holden has had, for quite some time, a transition centre that I have visited on numerous occasions, set up within the administration area at the Elizabeth plant. We have been doing very similar work in the south and in the north with the auto supply chain workers.

In terms of the supply chain, about two years ago it was estimated from the work that the automotive transformation team had done that less than a third of supply chain companies were intending to be around once Holden had closed. That figure is now up to about three-quarters who are surviving, who are transitioning once Holden have closed. There are workers going to a whole range of different areas. There are many who are continuing on in the manufacturing industries.

One of the best visual demonstrations that I have seen is, at the Holden transition centre there are a couple of really big whiteboards where once people have left Holden they put on the whiteboard their name and where they are going, and it includes quite a lot of manufacturers. You have small manufacturers up to bigger food manufacturers, such as Spring Gully or RM Williams. We are finding that once a different manufacturing company employs an auto worker, it is very, very frequent that they employ more and then more.

Micro-X at Tonsley is a great example of that. It is a world-breaking first new development in portable X-ray machines that is now, I think, up to the eighth ex-Holden worker being employed there. The advanced manufacturing skills that so many in the auto industry have gained during their working lifetime have made them extremely attractive in other manufacturing areas and, once a manufacturer has employed someone from the auto industry, it is quite often that further people are employed, but there are people going into a whole different range of areas.

On Wednesday, I spent some time with Steve Kovac, who worked at Toyoda Gosei, who has now opened his own small business at the Aberfoyle Hub Shopping Centre—Aberfoyle Fine Foods, a cafe. There are people who have gone into areas, when you read the names on the transition board at Holden, such as aged care, Correctional Services—a whole range of different areas. In terms of the employment outcomes, the figures that Holden use—and I have absolutely no reason to doubt their figures—are that somewhere between 80 and 85 per cent have an outcome post working at Holden.