He vowed he would not ''make knee-jerk, piecemeal decisions in response to the crisis of the moment'' - a reference to his government's refusal to promise subsidies to Holden and Toyota to keep the companies in Australia. Workers at Toyota's plant in Altona, which on Wednesday began a 21-day shutdown over Christmas. The car maker has been eyeing government support. Credit:Wayne Taylor ''This government will be very loath to consider requests for subsidies,'' he said. ''We will be very loath to do for businesses in trouble the sorts of things that they ought to be doing for themselves.'' His comments came after car maker Holden announced last week it was shutting its manufacturing operations in Australia in 2017, with the direct loss of about 2900 jobs, plus thousands more in the car components industry. Mr Abbott announced a $100 million economic ''growth fund'' to help plug the holes in Victoria and South Australia left by the car maker's looming exit.

South Australian Labor Premier Jay Weatherill blasted the fund as ''hopelessly inadequate''. He said his state would spend at least $50 million repairing the damage left by the Holden exit, but refused to commit to co-ordinating that with the federal package. Even Mr Abbott's Liberal colleague, Victorian Premier Denis Napthine, stressed the $100 million was a ''first step'' only, saying Victoria would need further federal help. Illustration: Ron Tandberg. Credit:Tandberg The $100 million will be used for grants and other support for manufacturing companies that hire former auto workers, car component companies that increase exports or switch to making other products and companies that commercialise new ideas for the auto industry. Canberra has committed $60 million of the $100 million, and Victoria has pledged $12 million. The rest is expected to come from South Australia and Holden itself, though neither was committing to a figure on Wednesday.

On Thursday Mr Abbott repeated his reluctance to provide government support for struggling companies. "I don't absolutely rule out under all circumstances any assistance of this type whatsoever," he said. "But you've got ot be very, very careful about it... "Just as Qantas has got to get its house in orders, surely SPC Ardmona and any other business which is in trouble at the moment, has to get its house in order." On Wednesday Mr Abbott also announced reviews into the Victorian and South Australian economies, which will consider how to retrain workers laid off by closures and look at moving Commonwealth services to regions hit by closures.

They will also consider the concerns of the naval shipbuilding industry, which says it faces a ''valley of death'' in Victoria and South Australia as work dries up. Mr Abbott will chair a national taskforce looking at innovation, investment, productivity and the cost of energy. Federal Labor attacked the size of the growth fund. Opposition industry spokesman Kim Carr said Australia was facing ''probably the biggest manufacturing crisis in our history''. The Abbott government has cut $500 million out of the Automotive Transformation Scheme, set up under Julia Gillard, reducing it from $1.5 billion to $1 billion. It has also cut $215 million in funding that was to go to Holden to ensure it stayed here past 2020. It took out these hundreds of millions, Senator Carr said, but put only $60 million in the ''rescue package''. Holden recently told the Productivity Commission that between 2001 and 2012 it averaged federal government assistance of $153 million a year and made an average profit of $50 million.

Glenn Thompson, assistant national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, described the assistance package as ''cruel'', accusing the Abbott government of chasing the car industry out of Australia. ''According to conservative estimates, this will tear $21 billion out of the nation's economy,'' he said. Loading Australian Industry Group chief Innes Willox said the package would help develop Australia's manufacturing strengths ''and areas of competitive advantage''. With Richard Willingham, Judith Ireland

