On February 6, senior management announced the pending closure of the Tonsley Park Mitsubishi plant. Citing $1.5 billion in losses over the past decade, Mitsubishi Australia executive Robert McEniry explained to the Australian on the same day that the closure "was a commercial decision and a commercially responsible decision".
The 930 Mitsubishi workers were told they no longer had a job in a 20-minute meeting. Hundreds more workers in Adelaide's car component supplier companies are also set to lose their jobs as a result of the shutdown.
The closure comes despite $213 million in state and federal government handouts to Mitsubishi since 2001. This amounts to a public subsidy of over $1800 for every car produced over the last seven years. While Mitsubishi has advised they will give $35 million back to the South Australian government, the federal government has ruled out recovery of the remainder.
PM Kevin Rudd told the February 6 Adelaide Advertiser there was no federal government action that could be taken to keep the plant open. "We [discussed] that yesterday at a national level. There was nothing", he said.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has called for a federal inquiry into the state of the automotive industry and for greater financial assistance for the sacked workers in the wake of the job losses. State Greens MP Mark Parnell said in a February 6 statement that government funds are needed to move SA towards hybrid and electric car manufacturing, adding: "[Premier] Mike Rann should be demanding Prime Minister Rudd provide support for a new future in car manufacturing right now."