House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-04-11 Daily Xml

Contents

AIAUTOMOTIVE

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (14:57): My question is to the Premier. Are the 400 jobs at aiAutomotive, many of them in Woodville, secure given Holden's present difficulties and the fact that aiA's parent company, Autodom, went into receivership in November 2012, when the member for West Torrens said publicly:

The debt that Autodom have, about $6.5 million, has been guaranteed by General Motors Holden and Ford'?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:58): I thank the honourable member for his question. We are in discussions at the moment with aiAutomotive and I don't want to say too much more on the public record, except to say that I think the future of aiAutomotive is relatively positive, but I don't want to go into the details about that. I don't think there is any imminent threat to aiAutomotive in South Australia. I think partly that is due to the credit that the management in aiAutomotive in South Australia and indeed the workforce here should take, because they are the most efficient element of that whole group, and I think that is recognised by the parent group—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: And Holden.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: And by Holden, and I think that's why they invested and at least took on the debt that allowed that particular business to continue its operation, notwithstanding the difficulty the parent company got into. So, I think the future is relatively positive, but I don't want to reveal the nature of the discussions, which I think are at an important stage.