PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has rejected spending more public money to keep Holden operating in Australia.
Media reports suggest the car maker’s American parent company General Motors wants to close Australian operations by 2016, when Ford Australia is also due to stop making cars.
Mr Abbott says Holden needs to make its intentions clear as soon as possible.
“I think they owe it to the workforce, they owe it to the suppliers, they owe it to the people of Australia to say what they’re doing,” he told Fairfax radio on Friday.
“Are they staying or are they going?”
Mr Abbott said the government would not offer anything beyond what was promised at the September election – a total of $500 million in car industry assistance to 2016/17.
“We think there’s more than enough money on the table. But there is no more.”
Holden officials will provide some details about where the company is heading at a Productivity Commission inquiry hearing in Melbourne on Tuesday.
The prime minister said he wanted Holden to stay operating in Australia and the motor industry to flourish.
The best thing the government could do for the company was bring down taxes, reduce regulation and restore business confidence “not chase them down the road waving a blank cheque”.
A spokeswoman for Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane, who met with Holden representatives on Thursday, said talks were continuing.
Opposition industry spokesman Kim Carr said the government should have sent a delegation to General Motors in Detroit to discuss the future of Holden.
Senator Carr said Labor had negotiated a new support package with Holden before the September 7 election, but it had not been signed off.
The coalition had been “incredibly indolent, lazy” about developing a plan for the sector.
“Those actions are coming back to haunt them,” he said.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said workers needed clarification by the end of Friday’s shift.
“We can’t afford to lose the automotive industry in Australia, 200,000 jobs depend on it,” South Australian state secretary John Camillo said.
ACTU president Ged Kearney said the Australia-Korea free trade agreement announced by the government on Thursday would put more pressure on Holden as Korean vehicles became cheaper to buy.