Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. As I was saying, this is the first instalment out of that $500 million fund—$35 million to support Toyota doing this in Australia rather than in Thailand. I think that is quite important. Toyota publicly acknowledged that the government’s support was a critical factor in securing local production. So we stand very proudly behind the decision that has delivered that development to Australia and delivered those jobs to Victoria. We think this will serve Australia well and, more broadly, we think the development of a green car project is a very good thing. I point out to senators that industry commitment to this project has to be on at least a three to one basis. We are providing a capital grant, but the investment by Toyota will be much larger.