grants and funding

Holden’s workers were given an ultimatum on Tuesday: take a pay cut or the company would join Ford and stop making cars in Australia in 2016.

The Latrobe Valley manufacturer Steeline is planning to build a new $4.4 million facility and to create 10 new jobs in Traralgon.

The board of the Manufacturing Precinct met for the first time on Thursday ahead of next month’s commencement.

The Coalition has rejected Holden’s request for more assistance after the car maker said over the weekend that it would stop manufacturing in Australia without more support.

The effective rate of government assistance to the motor vehicles industry is around 9 per cent, while the rate for manufacturing in general is around 4 per cent.

Industry minister Greg Combet has defended the level of government support given to automotive makers in Australia, claiming that a Coalition government would cut funding.

Ford Australia has announced that it will contribute $10 million to a fund for those losing their jobs when the company ceases manufacturing in Australia in 2016.

Arnott’s has received a $113,254 grant through the federal Clean Technology Investment Program to upgrade its Huntingwood plant’s processes and reduce its carbon output.

Trade minister Craig Emerson has said that Australia would continue to make cars, after Ford’s announcement last week that it would end local production in 2016.

“You’ll never see Japanese cars in an RSL car park.”
That was Bill Bourke, Ford Australia’s sales supremo of the ’60s.
Bourke was wrong. Dead wrong.

Holden and Toyota have recommitted to manufacturing cars in Australia, with Holden suggesting that more government support could be necessary.

The Illawarra Region Innovation and Investment Fund, budgeted at $300 million and designed in response to 800 redundancies at BlueScope’s operations in Port Kembla, has been called a failure by some that it was designed to assist.

The headquarters for the first of ten Industry Innovation Precincts, part of the federal government’s Industry Innovation Statement – the Plan For Australian Jobs – was opened on Thursday.

St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, is hosting an AdBioFab conference today and opening Australia’s first biofabrication unit next month, with aims to develop the application of medical 3d printing technology.

The Victorian government and Shell have defended public investment in a new water treatment site at Shell’s refinery, which is currently up for sale.

The operator of a government-funded electric car service station in the Adelaide Hills says his facility has only been used half a dozen times in the last six months.

The three car makers operating in Australia, Holden, Toyota and Ford, have defended the level of government assistance they receive and said that their sector helps employ a huge number of local jobs.

Hills Holdings has not ruled out further job cuts and criticised what it says is a lack of support from the South Australian government.

Inverell-based Boss Engineering, a manufacturer of farm equipment, has expansion and improved energy efficiency in its plans for the future.

Jac Nasser, current chairman of mining giant BHP Billiton and former global head of Ford, has said Australia lacks the patriotic support of its car makers that other countries display and expressed pessimism about the industry’s future.