Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hindmarsh for his question. As a senior South Australian in the parliament and as the Minister for Education representing the Minister for Employment, can I say that it is a very sad day for South Australia that this announcement has been made by General Motors in Detroit. Nobody should be making light or politics about this decision. This is a decision that affects thousands and thousands of South Australians and Victorians. It is a tragic situation that Australia is in the position that it is. It is the kind of country that makes it very difficult, very difficult to manufacture such high-end products as motor vehicles because of our labour costs; because of the way that we do business in this country; because of our high Australian dollar; because of our lack of export markets, particularly for Holden; and because of decisions that have been made beyond our shores that we have had very little, if any, control over. South Australians have been well aware of this for a long time. South Australians understand how important the car industry is to our state, but they also understand how fragile it has been for a very long time. This government, as the previous government did, tried to keep those operations in South Australia and Victoria because we always put people first—never ideology, always people. The Deputy Prime Minister has outlined very well the difficulties that Holden and other car manufacturers have faced. Mitsubishi faced these difficulties and Mitsubishi closed. It does not matter on whose watch it closed, Mitsubishi closed.

Mr Marles interjecting—

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