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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-12 Daily Xml
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GENERAL MOTORS HOLDEN

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is to the Treasurer. When he visited the United States last week, did the Treasurer meet with representatives of General Motors to discuss the future viability of the Elizabeth plant, and what negotiations has the government had about the scope, scale and future of the Adelaide business?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (14:18): I thank the leader for that question.

The Hon. M.D. Rann interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: A hell of a lot! No, I did not meet with anyone from General Motors when I was in the United States. I requested a meeting with Chuck Wagoner, the CEO. I will go back a stage. The Premier and I have had regular contact with General Motors for all our time in government, and the Premier took a phone call from the new Chief Executive of General Motors. I was in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago, and I spent an hour with the new chief executive officer who briefed me on the very ambitious and exciting plans that General Motors has for its future, what it involves and what the financial requirements and commitments will need to be.

In that meeting I suggested that it would be good for me to meet with senior people and, if possible, Chuck Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors. The advice from General Motors—and I can fully understand this—is that in the past fortnight senior management of General Motors have been somewhat preoccupied with matters of survival and change of government. It was not possible to meet with senior management at that time. I will be back in the United States in January and the intention is to meet with senior people at that time.

In fact, tomorrow morning, along with the industry minister, the Hon. Kim Carr—a very good and longstanding friend of the Premier; they have shared many moments developing industry policy and policy exchange—I will be at General Motors to talk with them about the outstanding policy decision of the federal Labor government in terms of what it means for Holden's future, component companies and, indeed, all the Australian automotive industry. I have spoken to John Lenders (the Victorian Treasurer) about General Motors, and barely a week goes by when we are not in some form of contact, either at departmental or ministerial level, with Holden. We are doing all we can as a government.

Let us remember that this government, together with someone I consider a friend, Ian Macfarlane (federal industry minister under the Howard government), along with the Victorian government, assisted General Motors by providing assistance to develop new technologies that, in part, have been incorporated into the G8 Pontiac, which is selling reasonably well in the United States. In fact, I saw adverts for it when I was in the United States. It is a good looking car. It is selling well, but not as well as they would like. We should recall that the month of October was the worst month, I think, since the war for automobile sales in the United States. It is widely speculated and commented upon that General Motors, the parent company, is in a severe financial position—

The Hon. M.D. Rann: So are Ford and Chrysler.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: So are Ford and Chrysler.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: You may be right, but the big speculation when I was there was Chrysler and General Motors merging to try to get some efficiencies. General Motors' financial position was commented upon and reported widely, to the extent that I understand the US Congress is looking at a package of assistance for the automotive industry in America in the order of $US25 billion. It is clear that the Bush administration, the Congress and, indeed, the Obama administration will not see the American car industry fail, just as the Rudd government here will not see the car industry fail—and for South Australia that is good news. General Motors is an important part of our economy and the component makers are an important part of our economy. We are confident that we will see a growing and expanding automotive sector here in South Australia.

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