By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
FEDERAL opposition leader and apparent prime minister in waiting Tony Abbott has flagged a seismic economic shift for Geelong in the wake of Ford’s pull-out announcement.
Geelong’s future was now as a centre of medical excellence, Mr Abbott told party faithful at a Liberals state conference on the weekend.
“There is a future beyond the smoke stacks,” Mr Abbott said.
He singled out Geelong’s burgeoning health industry and education as employment and economic drivers of the future.
Mr Abbott also threw his support behind Geelong’s push to attract the national headquarters of DisabilityCare, the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
“The great city of Geelong will be a centre of medical excellence, it will be a centre of learning, it will be a centre of culture and if the right decisions are made about the NDIS it could be a city of administration, too.”
Mr Abbott said Geelong would “prosper and thrive again” under a Liberal federal government.
“This has been a very tough time for the people of Geelong; Ford on their way out, Alcoa and Shell under a cloud.
“Tough times will pass because tough people will never give up.”
Mr Abbott said a coalition government would create the environment for “the great people of Geelong (to) show the world what they can do”.
“Government’s task is not to be a heavy-handed interferer in the daily lives of everyone. Government’s task is to get taxes down, to get regulations down, to get productivity up.
“They can do it if government provides a hand up rather than just a handout.
“That is what the people of Geelong will get from an incoming coalition government should we win on 14 September.”
Mr Abbott said the Gillard Government had created conditions that hastened the end of Ford’s manufacturing in Australia.
“I blame the current government for being such a bad government and for making it so hard for people to manufacture successfully.”
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the Government took the loss of 1200 Ford jobs “very seriously”.
“We will keep working with local communities, with Ford workers and with suppliers,” she said.
“I am very determined, despite the shock of this news for those people, that no one is left behind and that the government works with them to seize a new opportunity for the future.”
