Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC) Share this | Hansard source

It is not me who is making this criticism, Senator Payne. The Liberal Minister for Manufacturing in Victoria, Mr David Hodgett, has said:

My message to my federal colleagues is that any speculations on Holden's future is just not helpful.

He is talking about his Liberal and National Party federal colleagues. He goes on to say to the people on the other side of this chamber:

My message will be to cease and desist …

He is dead right. The more the government fail to make it clear that they are in support of keeping automotive manufacturing in this country, the more they fail to clearly defend the automotive industry and, more particularly, the more the government fight amongst themselves over this issue, the more damage is being done to great iconic Australian companies like Holden.

We know Minister Macfarlane supports Holden staying in this country. We know he supports the manufacturing industry. We want to hear the rest of the Liberal cabinet, particularly the sole South Australian in the government cabinet, Minister Pyne, come out and say they support Minister Macfarlane. In fairness to Senator Birmingham and Senator Ruston, who is going to say a few words if I finish early enough. We need to put pressure on Mr Pyne and the rest of the cabinet to come out and clearly state that we need a manufacturing industry in this country and that we need to be able to make cars in this country. Holden and the other manufacturers are too important to fail. We need to take some action. We need to take some action now, not next week and not in a letter. We need to get on to Mr Devereux and talk to him. We need to make it clear that we need a solution to this problem. (Time expired)