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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-04-10 Daily Xml
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GM HOLDEN

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:49): I would like to speak today on something that is at the great big heart of my electorate and that is the GM Holden's plant at Elizabeth South. It has been long within the boundaries of the Taylor electorate, but unfortunately at the next redistribution I believe the member for Little Para—

Mr Odenwalder: Why is that unfortunate?

Mrs VLAHOS: Well, I'll lose my best booth, that's why. I want to speak today about the 400 job cuts that will be lost from the Holden Elizabeth plant and how that is going to affect my electorate. Since I was the candidate for this area in 2009, I have seen the ins and outs of this story. I have seen hope and I have seen despair, and this week has just been another sad chapter to that, with 400 being told they will not be working there, and the plant will likely end up at about 1,750 people.

Apart from the 400 jobs that were announced on Monday of this week, there were also cuts last November of about 180, and 40 of those were in the Port Melbourne engine plant, separate from the Elizabeth South site. There was also a large redundancy program in 2009 where 500 people were made redundant.

This comes on the discussion today in the media about the Cruze. Our government has always encouraged our members—and many of us northern MPs proudly drive GMH cars because we are loyal to our local constituents and the quality products that they deliver to our state and nation. The thing that disturbs me most about this is when I look back on the package when it was delivered last year, and the debates that have happened in this house and the politicisation of this issue on some sides of the political divide in this area.

People have argued about semantics about whether it is 'Holden' or 'Holden's'; no-one talks about the lifeblood of the people in the northern suburbs, the mums and dads, the school students, the families, the aunts and uncles, the componentry people in every street of my electorate that I know are connected to that plant.

It sickens me to my heart when I hear people in this place degrade and diminish the quality of that workforce which we now, as a group of northern suburbs MPs, as a government, and as a northern community, will stand behind and help to find new training, skills and jobs to move forward from Monday's announcement.

My office remains open to anyone who has been touched by this story to provide help and support, and we will endeavour to make sure that people are put in contact with any support services they require. I would like everyone in this place to remember the bipartisan nature of making sure our state succeeds and not diminish—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

Mrs VLAHOS: —not diminish—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

Mrs VLAHOS: You, the member over there who is interjecting, were one of the people leading the charge speaking down this plant last year!

Mrs Redmond: Never! Absolutely never. Look at the debate—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

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