Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable senator for his question in relation to funding for the Australian automotive sector. I do note that up until 2015, under the Automotive Transformation Scheme, the car industry received about $1 billion of taxpayers' funds, and from 2015 on there will be a further $1 billion of taxpayers' funds. I think what the automotive industry needs—and I think what the automotive workers need—is for Holden to state their intentions. In question time today the Deputy Prime Minister indicated that he had written to Holden today requesting that they state their intentions before Christmas. This government has quite clearly made several significant decisions which will positively impact on the automotive sector and industry generally. The first of those, of course, is to remove Labor's toxic carbon tax, which has not only impacted dramatically on the automotive sector, but has also impacted—