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MELBOURNE - The federal government's A$6.2 billion ($7.18 billion) assistance package for Australia's ailing car manufacturers is "absolutely crucial" to ensure its survives, federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says.
But there were limits to the help available to car dealers hit by the withdrawal of motor finance companies from the local market, he said.
The world's carmakers were facing a "massive transformation" in the next five to 10 years to begin manufacturing fuel efficient vehicles, Mr Tanner said on the ABC's Lateline programme.
"The question is whether the Australian industry is going to be part of that transformation or whether it is going to effectively disappear. We have resolved that it is going to be part of that transformation," he said.
The package would assist manufacturers Ford, GM Holden and Toyota and component suppliers that employ tens of thousands of workers, Mr Tanner said.
Treasury and other branches of the government were working with a taskforce to assist car dealers left without in-house sales finance by the withdrawal of companies including GMAC and GE Finance from Australia, he said.
But the market itself would help to resolve the situation, he said.
"Partly this is ordinary market forces in play and there are other parts of the Australian economy, too, that are feeling difficulties that we can't ignore either, so we need to be careful not to be racing around, just leaping into every sign of difficulty."
- AAP
