PRESENTER:
Well Toyota is big business but its closure threatens to hit many in the industry, right down to the smallest suppliers. Assessing the general fall out, Small Business Minister Bruce Billson, has been speaking to Political Reporter, Julie Doyle
JULIE DOYLE:
Bruce Billson the Opposition has come out very strong over this issue of Toyota, saying that the Government has let this happen on its watch that’s responsible for the death of the car industry. Could you have done more to ensure that Toyota stayed doing business here in this country?
MINISTER BILLSON:
Well, it’s interesting that Toyota’s made it clear that there was no further action that the Government could have taken that would have brought about a different decision. And it’s completely disingenuous of the opposition to think this has just happened overnight.
The challenges that the industry has been facing have been building for some time. Manufacturing’s been facing many many challenges and some stiff headwinds in terms of its competitiveness and its survival. We need to remember we lost a manufacturing job every 19 minutes under the previous Labor Government so there is quite a lot of work that is needed to turn around that trajectory, to make sure that the opportunities that are there are ones we can secure.
JULIE DOYLE:
But on that then, as you say this hasn’t just ‘happened.’ Could you have done more to have seen this coming? Should you have been out there talking to Toyota and working with them after Holden left, to ensure this didn’t happen?
MINISTER BILLSON:
Well our Industry Minister has been very active. You would also be aware the Government was quite supportive of the initiative of Toyota to re-engage with their workforce about arrangements. There have been discussions about the $1 billion commitment we made to support the car industry and how that best could be made available and the Productivity Commission is also doing work – there’s been plenty going on. But as the announcement made clear yesterday, there are also global factors. Many of those are outside of our influence but the Government has been very focused on what we can influence. That’s why we turned around that hit on cars through FBT changes that the previous government introduced, that’s why we want to abolish the carbon tax which adds another $400 cost on cars.
JULIE DOYLE:
But could you have given them extra support to keep them here?
MINISTER BILLSON:
Well the programs that were in place when the Abbott Government was elected have continued and we’ve made a commitment beyond the current allocations for a further $1 billion. We have also engaged the Productivity Commission that you’ve seen the car industry and many others make contributions to, to work out what the shape of that support should be. So there hasn’t been any lack of support, there’s not been any lack of effort and enterprise on the Government’s behalf tackling the areas where we can bring about a better environment for car manufacturing in this country. It’s not about that, these are about global influences and now we need to look into the future, recognising that there are very challenging days ahead for the staff involved and the suppliers as well. They have had to be world class for years Julie, and if they weren’t world class they would be displaced by supply options from overseas.
JULIE DOYLE:
Well looking to the future then, you talk about the workers – what kind of assistance can the Commonwealth offer the workers?
MINISTER BILLSON:
Well we will be working in partnership with the company and the State Government in Victoria and it’s pleasing that the State Premier is in Canberra today undertaking those discussions. There’s already a funding pool available for innovative investment proposals in regions that have been affected and the company has made it clear that they want to support the workers and these changes have a number of years forward forecast to them, so there is an opportunity to make use of those skills so that workers with good jobs at Toyota can look forward to other good jobs and applying those skills in those cities.
JULIE DOYLE:
How confident are you though that these workers will be able to transition to new jobs? We heard the Prime Minister say “where some jobs go, new jobs come up” but how can these people easily make that transition?
MINISTER BILLSON:
Well it is a time of challenge, of change and of opportunity. But we need to work together to put our best game forward so that those workers and more Australians have an opportunity for good, high paying jobs. We’ll be there playing our role, partnering with…
JULIE DOYLE:
How do you make sure those jobs are there though? You talk about ‘good, high paying jobs?’
MINISTER BILLSON:
Well we’ve made it clear – our agenda is to try and build on the strengths and advanced manufacturing is a strength. There are growth opportunities in that sector, as we speak now and we’ve already seen in areas like component manufacturing, we can be world class. Infrastructure is also crucial - they are the arteries of commerce and you know we’re accelerating the infrastructure roll out. We are in the early stages of the East-West project alone – that’s 3000 jobs. We’ve got strengths in our economy, let’s work to those, let’s get the impediments out of the road and support workers in that transition.
JULIE DOYLE:
Infrastructure though, as you mentioned, infrastructure projects take time. How much, I mean obviously this decision, it could have been seen coming after Holden – there was a lot of conjecture about what was going to happen with Toyota. Has there been work going on, planning for this scenario that this may happen so these projects for example (infrastructure) can get going quickly?
MINISTER BILLSON:
Well you know that the Abbott Government’s been urging the acceleration of those infrastructure projects-a very comprehensive package of targeted investment to get those projects going. Ford, when it announced its withdrawal under the previous Labor Government, some of the signs and writing was on the wall then and we’ve been urging for a sober, longer term, strategic examination about how we can best support the competitive elements of our manufacturing industry – knowing this is a time of change and challenge and of opportunity. We need to be best placed to make the best of it – infrastructure is part of that, improving our productivity, getting the tax settings right, removing unnecessary red tape, making sure we are competitive, supporting enterprises in the economy and opportunities – that’s the agenda we’ve articulated and are implementing.
JULIE DOYLE:
That’s all we have time for, thank you Bruce.