Joint announcement with the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP
[check against delivery]
Elizabeth, South Australia
Senator Carr's speech
A car isn’t just another commodity.
Cars are central to our way of life.
The car industry is central our economy.
Every advanced industrial country in the world knows this to be true.
When we talk about what the industry means to Australia, we have to take these factors into account.
We have to consider its social and cultural value – not just its economic value.
We have to consider the demand and wealth and capabilities it generates across the economy – not just weigh the sector in isolation.
The Australian Government considered all these things when it drew up its $6.2 billion New Car Plan for a Greener Future.
This is a plan to transform the automotive industry.
A plan to help the environment.
A plan to secure jobs.
A plan to secure prosperity.
It is a plan to protect the investment people like you have made in this industry.
Back in October, the government took strong action to guarantee bank deposits and stabilise the financial system.
This was very much about protecting the savings of ordinary Australians.
But savings aren’t the only things we invest.
We also invest our time, our skills and our creativity in the work we do.
Everyone of you makes that investment every day.
Some of you have been doing it for decades.
This government is not about to let that investment crumble into dust.
We weren’t prepared to leave your savings at risk.
We aren’t prepared to leave the industry you have put your lives into at risk either.
Nor are we prepared to sacrifice the countless direct and indirect benefits this industry brings to Australia.
On previous occasions I’ve said that being able to build cars also enables us to build jet fighters.
One or two armchair experts have challenged this.
They clearly haven’t heard about the many Australian engineering firms – firms like Marand, and Ferra, and Broens – that are using the skills they developed in the automotive industry to win work in defence and aerospace – including on the Joint Strike Fighter.
That’s how important this industry is.
It is the backbone of Australian manufacturing.
It underpins our ability to make things.
It underpins our ability to defend ourselves.
It is the lifeblood of communities across the country.
There are some who say the Australian car industry has no future.
They are wrong.
This is an industry with an infinite capacity to adapt and renew itself.
Today’s announcement is another reminder of that.
The Delta small car project will help redefine GM Holden in Australia by adding a second line alongside the Commodore: bolstering
the long term future of manufacturing in Australia.
This isn’t about me or the prime minister.
It isn’t about Mark Reuss or Rick Wagoner over in Detroit.
This is about you.
It is about your jobs and your future.
That’s what we are fighting for.
Prime Minister - Transcript of remarks at GM Holden Plant
E & O E - PROOF ONLY
Working men and women of Australia, it is fantastic to be here at Elizabeth today because we are here to celebrate the future.
We are here to celebrate the future of this great city. We are here celebrate the future of this great industry and we are here to celebrate the future of this great Australian name: Holden.
Sixty years ago this year Ben Chifley stood at the assembly line as the first Holden rolled off. Sixty years later Holden is part and parcel of who we are as Australians.
And let me say this to you as Prime Minister of Australia, this Government and the Government that I lead will do everything physically possible to continue to support this great industry and this great company into the future.
I said before the election that I never wanted to be Prime Minister of Australia and Prime Minister of a country where we didn’t make anything anymore.
I said at the time I believe passionately in the future of Australian manufacturing. I said that at the time I believe therefore passionately in the future of manufacturing in the automotive industry.
My views have not changed one bit - nor will they.
This is a time, as we’ve just been reminded, which is not for faint hearted.
Every night on the news you go home and you see the story. From around the world, about the state of the global economy, the state of the global financial system, the state of global manufacturing and the state of global auto.
And there are two possible responses that we can deliver for that sort of news. One is to watch and to become buried in our own pessimism and gloom.
Or there is the alternative. And the alternative is what I describe as the Australian alternative which is to get up and do something, to act, to provide leadership and to forge the future.
That is what we are here to celebrate today, that alternative.
When we look around the world and you can take a view which says it’s all too hard, our view as a national Government is that sure these times are tough, there is no point gilding the lily with people. There is no point saying that it is all rosy and sweet out there because it is not.
But what I am here to say to you, as Prime Minister of Australia, is that we are a Government prepared to take whatever decision is necessary to see Australia through this global financial crisis.
That is why we embark upon this ambitious plan of a $6.2 billion, new car plan for Australia. That is why we did so in October, that is why we announced it in October, that is why we embraced the automotive industry in October and said we know the pressures this industry is under, globally and nationally and we here to say one simple thing – we as a Government intend to be your partners for the future.
But beyond that is also to look at the overall state of the economy. It is why also in October we said there are pressures in the banking system and for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth, this 108 year old nation of ours, the Government extended guarantees and offered guarantees to all 15 million deposit holding accounts in every Australian bank.
That is what the Government has decided to do, to provide leadership and strength and confidence for the future.
And when we looked at the overall pressures on the family budget and we looked at how difficult things were looming, again we could have watched, we could have listened, we could have waited – instead we acted.
In October we took a decision to inject $10.4 billion into the Australian economy. Help for pensioners, help for families with kids, help for new home buyers. That is practical action. That is decisive action.
We’ve done the same with a $15.1 billion new deal with the States and territories to invest in the reform of our schools and our hospitals. And only a week or so ago, we did the same again with a $4.6 billion injection into our roads and into our ports and into our rail and also into our universities.
And I say to you, as the good working people of Australia, it doesn’t end here.
This Government, as I said to you before, is prepared to take whatever action is necessary in the difficult year which lies ahead to see Australia through. And part of that, is by being partners with you here at Elizabeth.
Part of it lies investing with this great company Holden and securing the future of this great industry. That is why as one of the first decisions out of this new Car Plan for Australia – this new $6.2 billion plan – we’ve reached into it and said here is money we the national Government will invest with the company, to secure this new production line here at this company.
Can I say none of this would have happened had we not had the partnership of you the working people of this city.
I salute the work of the Union. It’s been good leadership. You’ve done that through your enterprise negotiations.
I salute the work of the South Australian Government, led by Premier Mike Rann and the Deputy Premier Kevin Foley, in making their contribution to the renovation of this great plant possible.
Also, to your local General Manager Mark Reuss, who I think has brought a breath of fresh air to the way in which this company carves out its future in Australia.
To my colleague the Industry Minister, Kim Carr, who has within his bones and within his heart a passion deep, wide and broad when it comes to the future of this industry. And those of you who know him well, know that I speak only the truth.
On this great day therefore, it is with an honest pride that I participate in your celebrations today because it is only made possible by all of us recognising one core Australian value.
And it is this: when we’ve got our backs against the wall, we are at our best.
We don’t just look aside and moan, we get up and act. And the other great value at work here is this: when we have our backs against the wall as a nation, we recognise that we are all in this together - management, unions, governments - Federal, State, Local - Members of Parliament, you as individual working people, your families and the community and the municipality that supports you.
When we recognise we are in this all together, you know something, there is nothing, repeat nothing, that can defeat us. Nothing, repeat nothing, that can defeat us.
In the year ahead there will be some very tough times. It will be hard. There will be some cruel times. And we are in many respects in uncharted waters.
But if we stick together and government continues to provide leadership and governments together with corporate and union leadership act as one in securing the nation’s future then we will see Australia through.
This car that is going to be built here - this new Holden small car - is about jobs, it’s about the environment and it’s about the family budget.
It helps you drive your dollar further in terms of fuel costs. It takes carbon emissions out of the atmosphere. And it helps underpin jobs for the future.
This new small car, to be made in Australia, for Australian motorists, is good for the motorist’s budget, it’s good for the environment and it’s good for Australian jobs at a time of this global financial crisis.
I say this to you therefore one and all, be proud of what you have done here, be even prouder of what you are about to do here.
For what you do is not just part and parcel of earning a living, a wage and a way of life.
It is part and parcel also of injecting this nation with confidence in its future and for that I salute you one and all, the working men and women of Australia.
[Ends]