Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great sadness that I too rise today to speak on this matter of public importance—Australians losing their jobs because of this government. It is very sad to see that one of our iconic manufacturers in this country, which has been producing cars for over 70 years, is shutting its doors tomorrow. It has been not only producing and manufacturing cars but skilling people, creating jobs—jobs of the future as well—and helping build the nation through the car manufacturing industry. With an issue as important as this one in the House—it is something that is so important to all of us in South Australia and all the SA MPs, especially on this side—it really surprised me, in listening to the different speeches of members opposite, to find that they have no understanding and no real idea of the car industry and car manufacturing. We heard, for example, the member for Gilmore—and I am glad that she is here in the chamber—say we can't go on subsidising industries. I have to tell you, all you have to do is go to the library and they will get the figures for you, as they got them for me a couple of years ago. You have a look at every car manufacturing country in the world and every single one subsidises their industry. They subsidise their industry because they know of the value-adding to the economy. You have a look at Germany, the US, Brazil, Thailand, Korea and Japan: they all have a subsidy for each assembly line worker working on a production line.

We were one of the lowest subsidies in the world—the lowest, not the highest. We weren't subsidising to keep an industry going; we were subsidising because we knew it value-added to the economy. It created jobs and had a spin-off for small manufacturers. It ensured we created technologies and different industries. If we look at General Motors Holden in Australia, we were one of the only nations in the world—one of 13 nations—that could create a motor vehicle from the idea to the design to the showroom in the caryard. Those were the skills that we developed in this nation, and to see Holden shutting down is very sad.

The end of motor vehicle production in this country was not inevitable. The people in this country know who to blame. The Liberal Party is to blame, including Joe Hockey, now the ambassador to the US. I am glad to see he was looked after with a good golden handshake, unlike the Holden workers tomorrow who will be leaving those factory gates not knowing what their future holds. The former Prime Minister and, of course, the current Prime Minister have destroyed an industry that was a good industry, which created jobs and ensured that it created technology and industries.

Let's look at South Australia for a moment, with the next batch of job losses. We know that the closure of Holden has a spin-off of approximately 50,000 jobs that will be lost. That's 50,000 jobs, and we could have done something. We all remember your Treasurer in this place; we remember him very well. He goaded Holden and told them to basically leave the country. We remember Mr Devereux, the chairman of GMH, in a front-page article in July 2013, saying: 'If this government tries to mess with our subsidies or mess with us, we will leave.' That is exactly what happened. We remember that speech here in this place by your Treasurer, who absolutely goaded them out of this country—Holden could have still been there today.

We also know that the people of South Australia will remember, and they know who to blame. They will know. I dare those mentioned on the other side—the Prime Minister and others—to come out to the suburbs of Adelaide, as the last Holden car comes off the production line, and meet the workers as they leave the gates of the manufacturing factory that they have worked at for years and leave their manufacturing, high-skill jobs to go home to their families for an uncertain future.

GMH gave work to many people; one of those people who worked there was my father. He came off a boat in the early fifties and, on his second day in Australia, he started at Fishermans Bend. From Fishermans Bend he went to the Woodville factory in South Australia. From there, he was transferred to Elizabeth and spent most of his working life there. I know the importance of that and how it put food and bread on our table. This closure is a travesty and it should not have happened. (Time expired)

See this speech in context