Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

As part of that, we will be talking to Toyota. They have long been the strongest motoring manufacturer in this country and I want to say that it is the government's strong wish that Toyota continue to manufacture in this country. It is the government's strong wish that Toyota continue to export from this country and we will be talking to them about the best ways of ensuring that that happens.

I accept that this is a sad, bad day for everyone involved in the motor industry. It is a particularly sad, bad day for the workers of Holden, for the families of the workers of Holden and for the communities which are home to Holden's major facilities in this country. There is no way that I can gloss over that, and there is no way that I should gloss over that.

But the people of this country—the people of our industrial centres—have been through hard times before, and they have come through hard times. They have flourished through hard times. When BHP withdrew from steel-making in Newcastle, many people thought that it was the end of an era—and, yes, it was the end of one era. It was the end of a grimy, industrial era for Newcastle. But it certainly was not the end of economic dynamism for Newcastle, which has gone from strength to strength in the decade or so since the announcement.

I accept that the economy of South Australia is fragile, and I accept that Adelaide in particular has suffered a series of knocks. It lost Mitsubishi just a few years ago, but it did come through. There is much that we can be hopeful and optimistic about in the resistance of the South Australian economy, particularly if government can do all that is necessary to see that the Olympic Dam mine expansion goes ahead.

So this is a dark day. But there will be better days ahead, and it is my determination and the determination of everyone in the government to work with the people of Australia—to work with the creative people of this country—to ensure that the great strengths of our society and the great strengths of our economy continue to be built on in the days and weeks and months ahead.

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