Tuesday, 18 February 2020

Ministers statements: Holden closure

Mr PAKULA (Keysborough—Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Trade, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Racing) (12:24): Yesterday General Motors announced that it was discontinuing the Holden brand in Australia and New Zealand, selling the Thai factory where many of the right-hand drive vehicles are manufactured and after the middle of this year retrenching some 500 workers predominantly in design and engineering.

As an Australian, as someone who has driven a number of Holdens, as the son of a Holden driver, Australia without the Holden seems scarcely possible, and that is a point I made to Holden when I spoke with them yesterday. I also made the point, as I believe did Minister Karen Andrews, that it was incredibly disappointing that the state and federal governments were only notified after the decision had been made irrevocable.

Notwithstanding that disappointment though it was important to extract some commitments from the company, and they have assured me that all retrenched employees will receive full redundancy entitlements, that some 200 jobs in after-sales service will be retained, up to another 90 staff will be offered redeployment within the company, and all workers will be offered a full suite of counselling and retraining assistance. The company will engage with the government about the future of the infrastructure at the Lang Lang proving ground and a package of support will also be offered to the dealer network. In addition to that, for workers we have already reached out through the department about the Workers in Transition program, which will provide workers with contacts for retrenched workers, coordinate information sessions, referral to available services and the like.

Had Holden still been manufacturing bodies in Elizabeth and engines at Fishermans Bend, this sad situation may have been avoided. We will never know unfortunately, but what those workers do know and what they will always know is that our government will never dare manufacturers to leave our shores. We will continue to utilise local jobs first to ensure that local content means that workers get the biggest dividend possible from our infrastructure program. We will add to our record of 530 000 jobs, of making things here, building things here and giving people the skills they need for the jobs they want.