Still Holden On…But For How Long?
Holden’s call for extra funding has been answered in the most unexpected way; the answer was no yet they look like they will get their funds request. Confused?
As it stands, it appears the Federal Government has had a change of heart and will NOT go ahead with the proposed funding cuts of around a half billion dollars. This isn’t good news for just Holden, it’s good news for Toyota and Ford AND all of the businesses that supply the automotive industry. Holden also hadn’t put forward a formal request for extra funding by the end of 2013 as they were expected to do, as Industries Minister Ian Macfarlane’s office confirmed recently. Current funding for Holden was approved and locked in by the previous Government, which was intended to give Holden the strength to manufacture two cars through to 2022. Says Mr Macfarlane after the walk through at Holden’s Elizabeth, South Australia factory: “There’s money there,” he said. “The Labor Party’s added money through to 2020, which we haven’t touched and I’m not going to touch – that’s all there for keeps. It’s in the forward estimates, it’s been through the budgetary process, it’s been legislated, there’s at least $1 billion. The more, the better, as far as I am concerned, because I don’t want the industry to close down, I want them to keep going.”
This would indicate that although the Government had said they’d withhold $500million, it wasn’t mentioned that there would still be the same amount on offer anyway. This comes from an interim investigation that Mr Macfarlane has requested into the state of the industry to be completed within three months with a more detailed report to follow by the end of the first quarter of 2014. Should that report be as Mr Macfarlane clearly hopes, then there will be funding put forward with that coming from the surplus due to an underspend of allocated funds, thanks to the downturn in production over the last couple of years. This also apparently backs Holden’s original call for extra funding due to a change of market conditions since their original funding request was signed off by state and the Federal Governments in 2012.
Level 2, 9 Help Street
Mike says:
Kind of makes you wonder what the government is thinking
October 9th, 2013 at 1:48 pm