$60 million for car jobs plan

A plan to deal with the cuts in manufacturing caused by the exits of Ford, Holden and Toyota from Australia is still being promised by the South Australian Government despite a massive shortfall in proposed funding. Thursday’s state budget will include AU$60 million to deal with Holden’s departure, but the plan is well-short of the one put forward before the state election in March. The Premier’s pre-election jobs plan was drawn up with the hope of an AU$333m hand-out from the federal government, but in the end the Coalition has committed less than half that sum for its own plan – money that will be shared between the manufacturing states. Steven Marshall, South Australia’s opposition leader, is unimpressed with efforts to help car industry workers. “They talked about an AU$393m package and now it’s watered down.”