Today Tonight

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

Interview - Channel 7 – Today Tonight
2 February 2016

SUBJECTS: Guido Dumarey, Punch Corporation; The future of car manufacturing in Victoria and South Australia.

Rosanna Mangiarelli: Well Chris, thank you very much for your time. Look, this has been a real glimmer of hope for Holden workers for some time now. What did Mr Dumarey have to say to you today?

Christopher Pyne: Well Rosanna, it is a glimmer of hope. We don’t want to raise expectations for the people in Northern Adelaide in particular, because I’d hate to see them grieving a second time for the closure of the car industry. But Mr Dumarey does have a serious proposal, representing Punch Corporation. He’s done it before with General Motors at Strasbourg in Europe, and I strongly support the efforts he’s putting into working with the South Australian, Victorian and Commonwealth governments. A lot rests with the decisions that General Motors make in Detroit, and that’s why I’ll be writing to the chairman of General Motors in Detroit, to the senior executive members there, encouraging them to have a very open mind to Punch Corporation’s proposal.

Rosanna Mangiarelli: Because they have been a little cold on the idea, haven’t they?

Christopher Pyne: Well I think they’re waiting to see a serious business case. Multinational corporations are quite bureaucratic and I imagine they have quite serious processes to go through, but there’s a couple of big positives for General Motors. One is if they can seriously pull off the keeping open of the plant at Holden and work with Punch it’ll do a lot for their reputation in Australia. And of course, if Punch Corporation takes over the remediation of the site at Holden it’ll save them a great deal of money.

Rosanna Mangiarelli: But what about Mr Dumarey? Are you confident Punch Corporation can pull this off?

Christopher Pyne: Mr Dumarey and his corporation have done it before. He is a serious business person. He’s not asking the Government for money, which is different to many of the other proposals that have come to us since the announcement of the closure of Holden. He wants to work within the current parameters, and I think that is an important difference than some of the other proposals that have been put to us.

Rosanna Mangiarelli: So he’s quite serious about what he wants to do here?

Christopher Pyne: And now having met with him a couple of times, I’m of the view that he can bring it off with Government support, and of course with the acquiescence of General Motors who are the ones who are selling the plant.

Rosanna Mangiarelli: What exactly does he want to build here?

Christopher Pyne: Obviously he wants to use the platform that is already out there to build vehicles, but he also wants to do some of the things around componentry, bringing together the different component manufacturers in South Australia, and also working with the Victorians. So he has a very broad proposal, and the Government would like to see it come to pass, but we don’t want to over-egg the omelette, so to speak.

Rosanna Mangiarelli: When you say that the Government is on board, does this include the Prime Minister?

Christopher Pyne: Well Mr Dumarey met with Malcolm yesterday; Malcolm was obviously very encouraging. I understand that he’s heading now to Victoria and South Australia, and I’m sure that those governments will be encouraging too.

Rosanna Mangiarelli: And when he does meet Jay Weatherill, what advice do you have for him?

Christopher Pyne: Well I just hope Jay will get on board with what I’ve been doing as the Industry Minister, which is providing strong support, to contacting General Motors as I have done by phone and letter to ask them to be open minded, and if necessary put a bit of pressure on to bring the parties together at the crucial times.

Rosanna Mangiarelli: Well you say it’s crucial and you’re right, there’s no doubt our state needs this. Chris, again, thank you so much for your time.

Christopher Pyne: It’s a pleasure Rosanna.

[ends]