Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

The Bridgestone closure highlights the acute competitive pressures facing Australian manufacturing, and Australian automotive manufacturing in particular. Increasing competition from low-wage producers, the high rate of the Australian dollar, changing consumer preferences and, more recently, the worst global downturn in a lifetime have all had an impact. There are no simple answers to these challenges. That is why the Australian government is working on many fronts to secure high-wage, high-skilled jobs for the future—not least through the $6.2 billion A New Car Plan for a Greener Future. Powering Ideas, our new 10-year innovation agenda, is backed by an immediate injection of $3.1 billion in new funding over the next four years. We are giving Australian manufacturing the support it needs to retool— (Time expired)