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

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the important role Holden's workforce has played in Holden Australia's history including when it:

(a) was established in 1856 by James Alexander Holden as a saddlery business;

(b) became the exclusive supplier for General Motors in Australia in 1924;

(c) built the first all-Australian motor vehicle in 1948, the FX Holden;

(d) commenced construction on the current Holden site in Elizabeth, South Australia in 1958; and,

(e) hosted Queen Elizabeth II at the Elizabeth plant in 1963;

(2) congratulates the current Holden workforce for its ongoing professionalism which has ensured the Holden Elizabeth plant remains General Motors' top factory for quality globally; and

(3) acknowledges the role of Prime Minister Chifley and South Australian Premier Sir Thomas Playford in establishing the Australian automotive industry.

Every so often there are moments in the national life when a Prime Minister and a government must speak to the country. Undoubtedly 20 October 2017, that Black Friday, when the last car rolled off the line at GMH Elizabeth, was one of those days. It demanded a government and a Prime Minister that would actually speak to the nation. Instead, what we had was largely ignorance of that moment, denial of that moment and avoidance of that moment. But it was a very big moment. In the words of Holden, in their press release, their Executive Director of Manufacturing, Richard Phillips, paid tribute to the people and achievements at Elizabeth plant. He said:

The passion and dedication of the team here is second to none, it has been an honour to work alongside them. In the final years of production, we have been building categorically the best-quality cars to ever roll out of this plant, and our last car was our best.

That's what Holden said. In the newspapers in Adelaide, in InDaily the headline was: 'Holden gave me everything I have.' In the Advertiser it was: 'Holden's heart is still but history will drive our enduring passion.' In that article Richard Phillips was quoted, and he channelled Ben Chifley:

"Sixty-nine years ago prime minister Ben Chifley announced our first Australian-built vehicle with that famous line, 'She’s a beauty'," he said.

'And today, but just as a humble lad from Elizabeth, as I saw that car rolling past me on the line, the thought that came to my mind was simply, 'She’s perfect'.

That last car is perfect, and it tells a story about a factory and a workforce that, despite all of the criticism of them by this government at the time Holden made their announcement and in the lead-up to that—the blackguarding of what was an honourable workforce, a productive workforce and a workforce that was prepared to take a reduction in conditions and pay in its enterprise bargaining agreement as a method of securing the additional billion dollars worth of investment. The one thing that we lacked at that time was a government that was prepared to facilitate that billion dollars worth of investment that GM wanted to make, which would have allowed us to have two new extra models and would have carried us through to 2022 at the earliest.

We had a situation where this was an unnecessary closure of a great industry, of a great workforce, 50,000 employees across the country—not just the thousand at Elizabeth, but thousands and thousands in car component factories behind them. And we know that this tragic moment, and those opposite will get up and blackguard the car industry again. But even if you believe what they say they believe, which is that we couldn't manufacture cars in this country, you still needed a Prime Minister who would speak to the moment, who would honour that workforce, who would say decent things and pat them on the back for being so productive right up until the end—an unheard-of achievement. Of all the GM factories around the world, GM Elizabeth was the No. 1 in the world for quality in the last three months. In a factory scheduled for closure, that is unheard of, and those workers deserved congratulations for their efforts. But did the Prime Minister say that? No. When asked if he felt any guilt, he said, 'Personally I feel very sad. A bit of an end of an era. You can't get away from the emotional response to closure. Having said that, let's look at some of the more positive aspects to it'—some of the more positive aspects, that the workers might have transitioned to new jobs. That positive aspect is despite this government and not because of this government.

What we had on Friday was a Prime Minister who abrogated his responsibility to tell the nation what just happened. It was an important moment in our post-war history—the last Australian-made car coming off the line. He could have told South Australia, Victoria and the country what comes next. It could have been a time to explain what comes next, whether it be defence, innovation or something else like high technology. I don't know. But we'll never know, because the Prime Minister didn't turn up. He didn't make that speech. He didn't say anything to the people of South Australia, Victoria or, indeed, the nation. It was a critical moment in our history and a symbolic moment for this government that will condemn this Prime Minister and this government as the government that waved goodbye to the last Australian-made car.

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