Member for Isaacs Mark Dreyfus has used a speech in Parliament to criticise the Abbott Government for abandoning Australias automotive manufacturing industry.
Member for Isaacs Mark Dreyfus has used a speech in Parliament to criticise the Abbott Government for abandoning Australias automotive manufacturing industry.
The Abbott Government has left Australian automotive manufacturers high and dry, Mr Dreyfus said.
First Tony Abbott cut industry assistance to this vital sector, then Joe Hockey goaded Holden to leave Australia. Now this Government is trying to gut what remains of automotive and component parts manufacturing by legislating to cut and prematurely close the Automotive Transformation Scheme.
Manufacturing is a key industry for Melbournes South East. In the City of Greater Dandenong alone, an estimated 22,800 people are employed in manufacturing, many of them in the automotive component parts industry.
Tony Abbotts cuts to the Automotive Transformation Scheme will disproportionately hurt Melbournes South East, Mr Dreyfus said.
The Automotive Transformation Scheme is a scheme that offers Government co-investment to eligible research and development projects and the production of vehicles and engines in the automotive manufacturing sector.
The Scheme was planned to provide some $3 billion of investment to Australian automotive and component parts manufactures from 2010-2020.
In Government, Labor provided 22 firms in the Isaacs electorate with almost $17 million in co-investment grants under the Automotive Transformation Scheme.
The Abbott Governments Bill would cut back this investment and prematurely close the scheme at the end of 2017.
If there was ever any doubt of this Governments contempt for South East Melbourne, this has surely put it to bed, Mark Dreyfus said.
The Abbott Government is trying to kick manufacturers to the kerb by gutting the Automotive Transformation Scheme.
Manufacturing is the lifeblood of Melbournes South East and in barely a year, this Government has imperilled thousands of jobs in our community.
Unlike the Abbott Government, Labor believes in jobs and in Australian manufacturing. Labor will fight for manufacturing workers in Melbournes South East, Mr Dreyfus said.
