Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What we have here from the Labor Party with this motion to take note of answers is what we have seen with so many other issues. It is a failure to recognise the mess that they have created. The former government now wants to blame everyone for the situation that they created. But first we have to go back to the dishonesty of the previous government in talking about Holden and in talking about the car industry. We go back to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, speaking in March 2012. She said:

Holden will be here in Australia producing cars for at least the next 10 years. That's great news. And it's as a result of a more than $1 billion co-investment between the Federal Government, the South Australian Government, the Victorian Government and of course Holden …

And then we see the accompanying media release states:

The Prime Minister said the Federal Government’s contribution would be $215 million …

That was in March 2012. In November 2012, having apparently saved Holden, 180 jobs were cut at Holden's plant in Elizabeth in South Australia. Some months later, in March 2013, another 500 jobs were cut—400 in South Australia and 100 in Victoria. Then we saw Nick Champion, the member for Wakefield in South Australia, claiming:

I have secured guaranteed support for GM Holden, Elizabeth, ensuring production until 2022.

That was not true. They did not tell the truth before the election and, as we see with so many other areas of the former Labor government, they failed to tell the truth the right throughout. They created the conditions that made it more difficult for Holden to exist.