Decision on Holden’s future expected soon

A decision on Holden’s long-term future in Australia should be revealed “soon”, South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill says. The state and federal governments have put an assistance package to Holden’s US parent, General Motors, designed to ensure the future of its local operations for the next 10 years. Weatherill said the critical decision on the package would now come from the GM board.

“Once that decision has been taken, we’ll reveal publicly all the information about the nature of the arrangements,” Weatherill told reporters on Monday.

The Premier declined to talk about the level of assistance offered to Holden or the demands made by the car producer, though Managing Director Mike Devereux on Sunday suggested it could be as high as $300 million.

“The assistance that we seek is the assistance, frankly, that is sought by auto companies and other manufacturing entities around the world,” Devereux told ABC Television’s Inside Business program. “The co-investment path is, I think, the most appropriate one for Australia and, yes, Australia does need to compete with other countries.”

Asked how much money he was looking for from the government, Devereux said Holden had received about $150 million in co-investment support for building the Cruze model in Adelaide. “We would be looking to put two different architectures into our Adelaide plant in the second half of this decade,” he said.

Source: AAP NewsWire