Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, Mr Abbott, the Prime Minister. We have now seen the consequences of letting this man become Prime Minister. On 7 September, Mr Abbott said to the Australian people, 'Australia is open for business.' Tell that to the thousands of Holden workers who today found out that their company is going to close in this country. Tell that to the extra thousands of suppliers who are going to lose supply contracts. This is not just about South Australia and Victoria, where of course these factories are located. Holden is an Australian icon. It is a tragic day when we hear that this company is going to close.

Yesterday it was very clear that there was an emergency on our hands and we had to do something to try to save this company. We know Minister Macfarlane was keen to do it and wanted to do it. What did the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister Truss, do? He wrote a letter to the company. Given what we know about the circumstances and what we know about the urgency of the issue, why didn't he ring Mr Devereux? He had just left the Productivity Commission hearing. Why didn't he get on to him and say, 'What do we need to do urgently to save this company?'

The government quoted Senator Kim Carr exhaustively during question time. We know from what Senator Carr has said that it was not going to take very much money to save this company—$150 million or thereabouts was going to keep the company in Australia, keep the company manufacturing cars and keep all of those people in South Australia and Victoria in jobs. Why didn't the government do it? Minister Macfarlane wanted to do it. Where was Minister Pyne? Minister Pyne comes from South Australia—