NEWS: LAST-DITCH EFFORT TO SAVE AUSTRALIAN CAR INDUSTRY GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE. HOLDEN boss Gerry Dorizas has tried to pressure the government into abandoning its plan to slash $500 million from car industry assistance, warning it could shut down the industry well before its 2017 end date. Mr Dorizas said local auto suppliers — who supply up to 70 per cent of the parts in some Australian models — were close to collapse. “We are very focused on the supplier base because, if that happens, nobody will be able to produce cars that rely on parts made in Australia,” he said yesterday. The early close of the sector could throw another 50,000 people out of work at a time when the unemployed rate has spiked sharply. Holden has previously pledged to remain open in until 2017, the same year that Toyota is scheduled to leave Australia. Ford has said it will continue manufacturing until the end of 2016. The $500m cut was part of a Coalition election promise and was to be enacted as part of the Coalition’s May budget. But the Labor Party, the Greens, the Palmer United Party and Motoring Enthusiast Party Senator Ricky Muir have vowed to block the measure and it appears to lack sufficient support to pass. Mr Dorizas said at a briefing for motoring journalists yesterday that he hopes “logic will prevail” and the budget changes won’t get through. “The whole industry would like to see the decision (to cut $500 million in industry assistance) reversed,” he said. Motoring experts say many suppliers made considerable investments in new plant on the assumption this assistance would be ongoing. Mr Dorizas said they were now in “dire straits”. theaustralian.au/national-affairs/lastditch-effort-to-save-assistance-for-car-industry/story-fn59niix-1227023553797
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 02:00:43 +0000