Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and the Minister for Social Inclusion. What is the government doing in response to job losses at Bridgestone tyres?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wakefield for this important question and I know that as the local member for the affected communities he is deeply concerned about the job losses at Bridgestone Australia. The job losses here are as a result of the challenging global conditions we find ourselves in and the particularly challenging days we live in for the motor vehicle industry. As a result of those pressures, the Bridgestone tyre factory in Salisbury in South Australia has indicated that it will be closing, and our first concern, of course, is for the 600 workers and their families who will be affected by this closure by April next year.

I advise the House, and of course the local member is aware of this—but I presume all members of the House would be interested—that all workers who are made redundant by Bridgestone Australia are eligible for employment assistance under the government’s Automotive Industry Structural Adjustment Program. Under this program all workers who are made redundant will be eligible for immediate access to intensive employment services at the stream 3 level with a local Job Services Australia provider. Jobs Services Australia providers will help each worker develop a tailored Employment Pathway Plan to help them find another job as quickly as possible.

The Australian government has allocated up to 600 training places to provide assistance to those workers through our Productivity Places Program. The Commonwealth government assistance to these workers will be worth an estimated $4.7 million. We are also working together with the South Australian government to ensure that this help is available immediately. I understand that Premier Rann has just announced an additional support of up to $1 million will be committed by the state government to assist these workers. My department and the South Australian department of employment met with the company on Monday this week to discuss services to the workers caught up in this closure. Onsite information and advice sessions will be available to workers to enable them to understand what their options are and to assist them to access new employment opportunities.

Bridgestone’s Adelaide plant is in one of the government’s priority employment areas, and I know that the local member is well aware that we have declared the northern and western parts of Adelaide a priority employment area. That means that there is a local employment coordinator in that area. The job of that local employment coordinator is to work with my department and with the Bridgestone staff and to work on the ground coordinating help from agencies like Centrelink and Jobs Services Australia and training organisations. We obviously want to access the community resilience and the goodwill in the local community to assist these workers during this difficult period.

As a government we believe in action in the face of what is a very challenging global outlook. The government’s steadfast approach when challenged by the global recession has been to act, and act quickly. We acted to maintain confidence in Australian financial services and we acted to stimulate demand and to support jobs in the Australian economy. Of course, secondly, we have acted to invest in human capital and productive capacity for Australians in training and skills opportunities. Thirdly, we will always be there standing shoulder to shoulder with those workers who are affected by these economic pressures and, clearly, our thoughts and priorities now are on assisting these 600 workers at Bridgestone.