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

Today I wish to talk a bit about the car industry and the components industry and their vital importance to the electorate of Wakefield. Nearly a quarter of the workers employed in the Playford Council area, which covers from Elizabeth Vale through to Munno Para, are employed in manufacturing. There are an awful lot employed in the car manufacturing sector in particular. I remember doorknocking in Salisbury North: it was striking that, as I went street by street, I met workers from Futura, Holden and Bridgestone—literally two or three in every street. So it is of vital interest to my electorate that the automotive industry has a strong and viable future in this country.

I have had a lot of meetings with the union—in particular, the state secretary of the union, John Camillo, and the state secretary of the vehicles division, Jon Gee. I have had regular meetings with local delegates at Holden—in particular, Paul Brown, who is the senior shop steward at Holden—and more generally with all of the reps, both the shop delegates and the OH&S reps at the factory. I am very glad that the union has been such a good advocate at the local level with me to try and get the best possible response from the Bracks report.

The government’s response to the Bracks report is to be commended. It aims to give the automotive manufacturing sector a strong and viable future in this country by transforming the cars produced in places like Holden into both environmentally friendly and more fuel-efficient vehicles. That is to be commended, given the challenges we face. It is a 13-year plan which is really designed to transform the industry from a blue-collar industry to a highly skilled ‘green-collar’ industry. I would particularly like to acknowledge that we will have a $3.4 billion assistance program—the Automotive Transformation Scheme—running from 2011 to 2020. There will be changes to the current ACIS scheme to smooth the transition, worth $79 million. Most importantly, there will be $116 million to promote structural adjustment through consolidation in the components sector and to facilitate labour market adjustment. That is terribly important because so many workers are affected by some of the big changes in the industry. There will be $20 million to help suppliers become better integrated with the global supply chain. That is also to be commended.