Holden: an anniversary of shame

Instead of dismantling industries, what Joe Hockey should be delivering is an economy that’s advanced and prosperous, providing secure jobs and incomes for families, writes Paul Bastian

A YEAR ago last Thursday, Australia witnessed a shameful spectacle when Treasurer Joe Hockey stood up in Parliament and goaded Holden into closing its Australian operations, setting in motion the collapse of an entire industry.

Hockey’s rabid attack on Holden shocked Australia, especially Holden workers and their families, who witnessed the Treasurer throw their future under a bus.

As Hockey was delivering his rant in Parliament, Holden’s then Managing Director Mike Devereux was telling the Productivity Commission Holden wanted to continue manufacturing in Australia. He said the obstacle to making new investments and continuing its manufacturing operations was the government’s approach to the industry.

A year on, we have seen over 53,000 people join the unemployment queues while the economy has slowed to a near recession and our national income has actually fallen. Consumers are now as pessimistic about the economy as they were during the height of the Global Financial Crisis.

And this is all before we see the real effects of the auto industry’s closure. It’s estimated this will be a hit of $21 billion to the economy and at least 40,000 more people in the jobless queue. Others put this figure even higher, at between 90,000 and 200,000 people losing their jobs.

A disaster for workers

The incompetence we saw a year ago from Treasurer Hockey has been repeated throughout the year, with the worst Budget in living memory, countless broken promises, shambolic management of naval shipbuilding and a wholesale dismantling of industry policy.

It’s no wonder there is speculation about how long Mr Hockey will remain as Treasurer. He has presided over a disaster for workers: unemployment at a 12-year high and Australians contemplating the first recession in 23 years.

The damage the government is doing to the economy and our industrial base should worry every Australian who cares about living in an advanced and prosperous country. But the damage being done to people’s lives is even worse.

The government’s approach to the people affected by its industrial sabotage can only be called callous indifference.

Automotive manufacturing workers live in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country, with much higher unemployment and worse job prospects than what most people are used to. In Elizabeth in Adelaide, unemployment is at a staggering 32%, while at Broadmeadows in Melbourne, it’s at 26%.

The lesson we learned a year ago was that Hockey and the government weren’t just indifferent to auto workers, they were openly hostile.

Rather than trying to make these people’s lives better by minimising the impact of closure, all we get is more planned cuts to automotive programs that threaten early collapse of the industry, mass layoffs and devastation for already struggling communities. It is a great relief that the Government’s planned $900 million cut to auto programs looks likely to be blocked in the Senate.

The government’s policy response to auto’s closure has added insult to injury.

Its so called ‘Growth Fund’ to support workers and businesses doesn’t include a single government dollar for re-training.

As a result, the majority of workers affected by closure can’t access its skills and training program, because they work in the extensive auto supply chain not at Holden or Toyota who are entirely funding the program.

Rather than offer genuine support for supply chain firms to diversify their business and save jobs, the Government’s $20 million diversification program is actually $17 million of re-labelled money from an existing auto diversification program.

To call this woefully inadequate doesn’t cut it. It looks more like deliberate cruelty to the tens of thousands of workers abandoned by the Government.

Will shipbuilding be next?

The lesson we learned a year ago was that Mr Hockey and the government weren’t just indifferent to auto workers, they were openly hostile. This is a lesson that has been reinforced at every turn through the year.

Now this hostility is being directed at our shipbuilders. It appears the government won’t be happy until they end all advanced and heavy manufacturing in Australia, leaving us as a farm, bank and quarry economy.

Joe Hockey and Prime Minister Tony Abbott may need to rethink this vision of the future when they contemplate the impact their policies are having on the opinion polls. Recent electoral results in Victoria and South Australia confirm the Coalition is alienating voters at a furious rate.

Instead of dismantling industries, what Joe Hockey should be delivering is an economy that’s advanced and prosperous, providing secure jobs and incomes for families.

Paul Bastian is the National Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union

Published on 15 December 2014.