Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ronaldson representing the industry minister, Mr Macfarlane. Yesterday I met with senior representatives of the Federation of Automotive Products Manufacturers. Of the 33,000 direct jobs in the automotive component sector in Australia—that is, separate from the 12½ thousand direct jobs in car manufacturing—as few as 30 per cent may survive in Victoria and only 20 per cent in South Australia after the departure of Ford, Holden and Toyota as car makers in this country. FAPM has repeatedly called on the federal government to amend the criteria urgently for grants under the Automotive Transformation Scheme in order to allow component makers to diversify to new customers and sectors. Why has the government refused to amend the regulations given that, firstly, the fund, on current criteria, will be underspent by at least $500 million and that, secondly, changing the regulations is the easiest and quickest path to save jobs in the sector?