Car workers hope salesman will boost sales

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union vehicle division head Dave Smith said government procurement of autel manual locally-made cars was "the low hanging fruit" in terms of things that can be done to alleviate stress on an industry that had been under severe pressure.

The federal government on Thursday announced it had appointed the former president of the Ford Motor Company in Indonesia William Angove as its first automotive supplier advocate.

His job is to boost sales of Australian-made cars to government and business fleets.

Making the announcement in Melbourne, Prime Minister Julia Gillard told Toyota workers and executives Mr Angove's role was "to work with your industry to win you markets".

The AMWU, which welcomed the move, said the union had been pushing for governments at all levels to reveal how many of their fleet cars are Australian made.

Mr Smith said the proportion of Australian-made cars in government fleets had dropped from 66 per cent to 33 per cent over the past 10 years.

"This can end now," he said.

Industry and Innovation Minister Greg Combet said the motor vehicle industry was facing very difficult times but could be EU702 Car Code Reader significantly assisted by government and private businesses lifting the level of Australian manufactured vehicles in their fleets.

"Between the Commonwealth, the Victorian and the South Australian governments, about 77 per cent of the fleets of those three governments, including our own, are Australian-manufactured vehicles," Mr Combet told reporters at a Toyota plant in Melbourne on Thursday.

But he said states such as Queensland, Western Australia and NSW had a long way to go in terms of lifting their numbers of locally-made cars.

Across the local government sector nationally, Australian made vehicles made up only a quarter of fleet cars.

Mr Angove will also work with automotive suppliers to help them find further work in global supply chains and the diversification of their businesses specialty products, to use their technologies to find other markets.