2016-05-16
Greens Industry spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today said the Australian auto industry has crashed because Labor and the Liberals have been asleep at the wheel. In February last year the Greens proposed a plan to allow new carmakers and component manufacturers to access the existing hundreds of millions of dollars allocated in the Automative Transformation Scheme if they were manufacturing vehicles or parts for electric or alternative fuel vehicles, or parts for renewables. Neither Labor nor the Liberals supported the move.
"People working in the auto industry in this country have suffered because Labor and the Liberals have been asleep at the wheel," Mr Bandt said.
"More than a year ago, the Greens announced our plan to help save the jobs of people working in the auto industry by changing the rules of the existing Automotive Transformation Scheme to allow new vehicle or component manufacturers to access this government support if they were constructing for electric or alternative fuel vehicles."
"Yet both Labor and the Liberals refused to back the Greens' plan, preferring to let the auto industry crash while the government banked hundreds of millions of dollars that was meant to support the industry as savings."
"Now we have Labor's announcement in the midst of an election campaign which is too little, too late."
Greens Transport spokesperson Senator Janet Rice said: "The future of road transport is electric cars and electric buses powered by renewable energy, and we've got to position Australia to take advantage of this transition."