Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a sad duty to have to address the house on this MPI. I would rather not have done it. I would rather have not seen the closure of this great industry, the car industry. We remember the history that lies behind this industry. In November 1948, as the Leader of the Opposition says, Ben Chifley watched the first car line off the line at Fishermans Bend, the 48-215—or, as it's known, the FX Holden. Every Prime Minister, from Chifley to Rudd, respected that industry—knew it was important for our national identity, our research and development, our industrial capacity and Australian jobs. Even you, Mr Speaker, know how important Holden was to the psyche of communities and to the identity of our country, because we all had a Holden and we all had relatives who worked in Holden factories or in car component factories.

This industry was in the fabric of our country. It was important to our postwar identity, as important as the Snowy scheme, as important as all of the things we have done—the science, the progress, the development, the industrial capacity. There were 50,000 direct jobs and 200,000 indirect jobs, not just in South Australia, not just in Elizabeth, but in the southern suburbs in Adelaide, in the western suburbs of Adelaide, in western Sydney, in Victoria—thousands and thousands of jobs in components, in research and development, blue collar and white collar, and the thousands of indirect jobs that hung off it.

This was a critically important industry. What have we had post the Rudd government? I will tell you what we have had. We have had a government determined not just to be cavalier about this industry, not just to be indifferent about this industry. We have had a government that bragged about it amongst its cabinet ministers. The then Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, and the then Treasurer, Mr Hockey, bragged off the record about who put the torpedo in the water. I remember reading about that in a Phil Coorey article. We know when the day of judgement came that the car industry did not receive support; rather, they were dared to leave. Who can forget the front page of the Australian Financial Review: 'Hockey dares GM to leave'? The opening line of that article by Phil Coorey and Ben Potter stated:

The federal government has accused General Motors Holden of ingratitude and effectively issued the company its marching orders, making it likely the auto maker’s departure is a formality.

A formality—50,000 jobs wiped. Now we see the consequences of that. Time and time again, we have seen closure after closure, job after job gone, and the slow winding down of this industry. Tomorrow, in my electorate, the last car will come off the line, a VF Commodore—a red line. It is the best car that Holden has ever produced. It is a great car. With the dollar where it is now, it would have been exported to the United States. The Chevy SS would have been exported. The Caprice would have been exported to the US police car market. With the dollar where it is now, this industry, instead of closing down, would have been thriving—not just surviving but thriving—if they had had a government that backed them in, but they didn't have that. Abbott didn't back them in. Hockey didn't back them in. Turnbull didn't back them in.

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