Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am really pleased today to be rising to speak on the importance of an Automotive Transformation Scheme to Australia's economic prosperity and development. If there is one thing our current government has shown itself to be good at it is holding back the industries of the future because of an ideology that is based in the past. One of the biggest casualties has been the Australian automotive industry, which is, as we have heard this afternoon from speaker after speaker, an industry in crisis. And it is coming at the cost of Australian workers and their families. The failure of successive Liberal and Labor governments to deal with this issue has had a really serious flow-over effect. Serious money has been poured into the Australian car industry, but it has failed to create the sustainable jobs that we need as we move into the 21st century.

It is a disaster. We have seen the major car manufacturers—Ford, Holden and Toyota—make the decision to end operations here. As the component manufacturers that have been part of the supply chain for these companies close, downscale or shift offshore, this government could well oversee the loss of tens of thousands of Australian jobs. I do not think the consequences and the reality of that has really struck home for people.

South Australia and my home state of Victoria are going to feel the brunt of this. I think of Altona, where I grew up, which is home to the Toyota manufacturing plant. And I think of how much employment in the western suburbs is currently dependent on the automotive industry—Toyota and the parts suppliers that are supplying it. I think of the city of Hume, where I worked for two years prior to becoming a senator, which is based around Broadmeadows, where Holden is based. The consequences of this massive loss of jobs in both of these areas, already suffering extremely high unemployment, is almost unthinkable. It is hard to think of what it is going to mean to the social fabric and the wellbeing of people in these parts of Melbourne.

The Abbott government is just waiting for this to happen. They have poured petrol on this fire with their plans to cut the Automotive Transformation Scheme and no real plans to support the industry's transition. And it is even worse than that, because the vast majority of the $900 million that is currently set aside for the ATS will not actually be spent on supporting these workers. With the car manufacturers making a quick getaway, the government is set to actually pocket around $800 million of that $900 million, which should have been and could be spent on the industry's transition. Workers in the car and component industries are driving towards a cliff while we are missing the opportunity to innovate. We just cannot keep sitting on our hands. The Labor Party seems to want to wait until the next election before proposing an alternative, but it will be too late then. The car manufacturers will have gone. We will have gone over the cliff. We have to act now.

The Greens have a plan to shift the industry to the jobs of the future. We see it as critically important to have socially and environmentally sustainable jobs in sustainable industries. This government is refusing to make any serious attempt to cut emissions while the rest of the world is making the move to reduce pollution, including creating incentives to shift to electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are a very substantial part of the trajectory Australia needs to be on to act strongly and powerfully on climate change. We know that in order for Australia to be part of the world community in reducing its carbon pollution we need to be reducing our carbon emissions by 60 to 80 per cent by 2030 to be consistent with what the science says.

Fossil fuels have served us well in the past, but they are of the past. We need to be shifting to clean, renewable energy. Clean, renewable solar and wind are what can be powering electric vehicles. Australia can take up the opportunity to be part of the global electric and alternative fuel car industry.

We want to see the establishment of a Green Car Transformation Scheme and redirection of the existing Automotive Transformation Scheme funding, which the government is currently pocketing, towards that scheme. This new scheme would support the component, engineering and design sectors of the industry by removing the current requirement for Australian component manufacturers to be producing components for Australian major vehicle producers in order to be eligible for assistance. We would want to see the component manufacturers being able to supply components into the global market and for them to be eligible for assistance.

We would focus assistance on auto parts makers that are seeking to be part of the local or global supply chains for electric, hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles. We would provide support for any major vehicle producers that are established and invest in South Australia or Victoria. We would favour applicants who commit to hiring workers from existing car or component makers and we would enable eligible participants to receive payments in quarterly instalments.

Globally, sales of electric vehicles and hybrids are expected to exceed half a trillion dollars by 2025. We need to make sure that Australia gets a slice of this. That is why we would extend funding to 2025 to give the industry the certainty it needs. With the proper support, some workers in the industry could make the shift into a growing component sector that is oriented towards the global supply chain of electric vehicles.

It is estimated that the automotive industry employs 45,000 workers directly and over 100,000 workers indirectly. Our Green Car Transformation Scheme would give hope to these workers and their families. The future for the car industry is electric, and encouraging this shift would have enormous benefits for a green economy, green jobs and for the environment.

Electric vehicles are cleaner and when they are powered by renewable energy they can have zero emissions. They can contribute to electricity demand management by providing battery storage to the grid, and they reduce the pollution that blankets our major cities. They really tick all the boxes. Importantly, of course, moving to electric transport is a necessary shift to combat dangerous climate change.

We know that already some Australian-based component producers are joining the world's electric car revolution. In 2012, after receiving government support from existing green and clean energy funds, Nissan Casting Australia, based in Dandenong South, secured ongoing contracts to produce several complex powertrain castings for Nissan's all-electric Leaf. This company continues to grow and has a secure future.

Another good example is Australian car parts maker Futuris, which has won a major contract to supply seats for the next generation Tesla battery-powered car, due to go on sale in Australia this year. Tesla is taking the motoring world by storm. Engineering for the program is done in Port Melbourne, and it comes on the back of previous contracts with Tesla.

There are other examples. There is a company in Adelaide that is now, hopefully, about to sign a contract with a solar manufacturer in India, and jobs that were previously in the car industry are now going into the production of solar technologies. There are also opportunities in the production of niche vehicles—vehicles that are not made in large volumes, like electric buses. We have bus manufacturing that is ongoing in Australia. We could be shifting that production and encouraging the production of electric buses. Electric trucks also have a major future that the Australian industry could be part of.

I had discussions with another manufacturer in Adelaide in recent months that is looking at the manufacture of four-wheel-drive vehicles to produce police and emergency service vehicles. I was thinking of this manufacturer recently when I was on the parliamentary delegation to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Fiji. We were hearing stories of how the police in these countries often do not have sufficient funding to be able to put fuel in their vehicles. The people I was talking to were women suffering from domestic violence, who wanted to call the police out but had to pay the police for the fuel to put in their vehicles. I was thinking that, given the problems for these governments of having sufficient funding, this is going to be an ongoing problem as the cost of oil rises and the amount of oil and diesel in the world decreases. I was thinking, with electric police vehicles, what an opportunity to be lining up our foreign aid with sustainability objectives and encouraging the rollout of electric vehicles throughout the developing world and throughout the Pacific as well.

These are the sorts of opportunities that we should be thinking about quite creatively—taking the opportunities, seeing where these opportunities arise and really making the most of them. That is what a successful automotive transformation scheme would look like. It is not merely about propping up an industry of the past. It is about looking to the future and thinking, 'What next? Where are the opportunities? Where are the jobs of the future going to come from and how can we best support this transition?'

The Greens' Green Car Transformation Scheme does this. It will be good for a green economy, good for drivers and, most importantly for this discussion, good for Australian workers.