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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-05-10 Daily Xml
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Automotive Industry

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (14:59): As a supplementary, sir, the fourth question was: does the minister support the calls and the cries by the union for more effort from the state government as per their delegation to the Premier last week? A further supplementary, based on the minister's answer, is: how many new businesses and how many new jobs have been created in the north as a result of the money the minister has put in through automotive transformation, and does he support the union for protesting, rightly, on behalf of workers and his lack of action?

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) (15:00): Again, Mr President, it is much better that the Hon. Robert Brokenshire doesn't ask questions and have everyone think he is exceptionally ignorant and a bit of a dill than get up and ask the question and have everyone know it. He had just—

The PRESIDENT: Minister, sit down.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Members should be able to ask a question that they think is important to their constituency without being accused of being a dill, so I would like you to withdraw that.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I withdraw that, Mr President, but I would note that this meeting was actually organised by the government and the union together to talk to many of those shop stewards who are representing workers at Holden and at the supply chain companies. This was organised with the state government and the union to talk about issues that are affecting workers. Many of these shop stewards do an exceptional job. In fact, all of them do an exceptional job, in my experience, and it is a difficult position many of them are in.

They are supporting workers who, as a result of the federal Liberal government, are looking to transition and look for other work, and we will continue to meet with management and, importantly, with workers and their representatives. We will give that commitment to continue doing it. Far from it being some sort of protest that was sprung up on the Premier, we helped organise that meeting. We invited people to Parliament House. It is the opposite of the misinformation the Hon. Robert Brokenshire has somehow got in his head about that particular meeting and the many other meetings we have.

In terms of new jobs, about two years ago when the Automotive Transformation Task Force went out and talked to, I think, 74 tier 1 and tier 2 supply chain companies, 80 per cent of them were intending just to close up shop once Holden finished producing cars and now well over half have already started diversifying. There is no doubt that the work of the government and the work of its automotive transformation team is making a difference and is helping companies diversify out of auto into areas like medical devices, food manufacturing and packaging, defence areas and other forms of transport.

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