17/07/12
A contraction in demand has led to Ford Australia announcing
today that 440 jobs will be cut from operations across
Victoria.
At this time the Coalition feels a great deal of sympathy for
the workers and their families who will be affected by these
cuts.
This announcement comes despite a $34 million injection of
cash from the Federal Government in January, demonstrating
that the Gillard government's untargeted handouts just don't
work.
As revealed at Senate Estimates earlier this year, the
Government obtained no guarantees regarding the future of
jobs at its Australian manufacturing plants when it signed
this deal.
Within six months of the Prime Minister saying that:
"
This is exactly the type of investment… to help shore up
the future of our manufacturing sector … best of all it will
secure jobs, not only in Victoria but also across the
nation", 440 jobs are set to go.
Since coming to office, this government has broken $1.4
billion of promises to the car industry, adding to the
sovereign risk of investing in Australia.
GM Holden Chairman and Managing Director Mike Devereux said
in June 2011:
"We cut a deal with the prime minister (back in 2008) and
then midway through ... the rules of the game changed … it
certainly worries a multinational parent when sovereign risk
begins to be something that is bandied about in terms of
doing business with Australia."
The carbon tax is now set to remove another $460 million from
the car industry's bottom line. With the industry under
pressure, now is the worst possible time to introduce a
carbon tax.
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