- News Limited Network
- May 23, 2013
Ford flees Australia
Jessica Irvine on the economic and political fall-out of the Ford shut-down
GOVERNMENT intervention would not have saved Ford Australia’s manufacturing jobs, Victorian Premier Denis Napthine says.
Ford Australia president and CEO Bob Graziano today announced that the company would shut the Geelong engine factory, costing 510 jobs, and the Broadmeadows car assembly line, shedding another 650 positions.
Sacked workers have been offered a $39 million rescue package from the Federal and Victorian governments to help them find a new job.
Dr Napthine met with Ford representatives today and was told there was nothing either the Victorian or Federal governments could do to change their decision, he said.
“I made it very clear to them: ‘Is there anything we can do to change the mind of your company’, and they said: ‘there’s nothing you can do, nothing the commonwealth can do’,” Dr Napthine told 3AW.
“They said it’s simply a matter of the cost of production here versus the declining market for their products.”
Dr Napthine also blamed the carbon tax for making manufacturing more expensive in Victoria.
“The carbon tax is making our electricity much more expensive. The cost of energy is a significant component of our manufacturing industry,” he said.
Ford has announced its plants at Broadmeadows, in Melbourne’s north, and Geelong, will close their doors in October 2016, resulting in the loss of 650 and 510 jobs respectively.
Reblogged this on Real News Australia and commented:
1160 Australians are going to be out of work and the costly carbon tax, which Julia Gillard promised we wouldn’t have under her government, is sharing a chunk of the blame. Ford Australia is closing their Geelong plant amid a diminishing market and “much more expensive” energy costs in Victoria due to the scam we have come to know as the ‘Carbon Tax’.
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