Tony Abbott has signalled the government will consider increasing infrastructure funding to help Victoria cope with bleak economic times after Toyota confirmed it would stop making cars in Australia.

The prime minister's suggestion – before a meeting with the Victorian premier, Denis Napthine – comes as the opposition warns the federal government's "white flag" manufacturing policy could potentially plunge the Victorian economy into recession.

Toyota announced on Monday that it would cease production in Australia in 2017, causing the loss of 2,500 jobs. It follows last year's announcements that Ford would cease production in 2016 and Holden in 2017, paving the way for tens of thousands of job losses in the car components industry.

The loss of car manufacturing in Australia is set to trigger renewed debate about jobs and industry policy when parliament resumes on Tuesday.

Napthine said he and the deputy premier, Peter Ryan, would meet Abbott on Tuesday to discuss the need for a "comprehensive adjustment package from the federal government to assist affected workers at Toyota and across the supply chain, and to also look at opportunities for job-creating infrastructure in Victoria".

Abbott said he would give Napthine a "good hearing". The prime minister said they would discuss infrastructure projects "which might be funded in the medium term so that the people of Victoria are confident that they can face the future and that their state is going to be better shape in five years' time than it is now".

The prime minister said Napthine understood the job of government was "not to offer false hope or miracle cures" but to carefully work to ensure the economic fundamentals were right.

Abbott told the ABC he could not offer Toyota workers "false hope" but the fact the company's operations would continue until 2017 provided "some consolation". It was important to focus on the quality of these highly skilled adaptable workers who could do well in other roles, he said, arguing Australia had a proven record of creativity and flexibility.

"The news that your workplace is going to close in three years' time is bad news, it's difficult news, it's devastating news, but it's not going to happen tomorrow, it's not going to happen next week, it's not going to happen next month, it's not going to happen next year, so there will be time to manage this transition and obviously Toyota as a very responsible, honourable business will do its best to ensure its workers are not left in lurch," he said.

Abbott said he accepted the transition was not always easy but pointed to Newcastle which had recovered from the loss of its steelworks in the 1990s. The aim was to ensure more jobs were being created than were being lost and that Toyota workers could "move from good jobs to better jobs".

He said Toyota had not sought additional financial assistance from the government. "Last night Toyota said look, we've looked at this long and hard. This is a very considered decision and it is a final decision and it's not as if the government could have leapt in at the 11th hour and said here's another $100m or $200m, please please please stay," he said.

"We've tried that with the motor industry, it hasn't worked and the best thing now is to focus on the things that we can do and which are profitable."

But the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, linked the demise of Toyota to the decision of Holden to end Australian car manufacturing. He said Holden had wanted to do a deal with the government but its exit jeopardised the viability of car components manufacturers that supported Toyota.

"The shockwaves of this economic tsunami are unprecedented in terms of employment," Shorten told reporters in Canberra before a parliamentary question time set to be dominated by the issue.

"Just think about it: tens of thousands of people. There's 170 prime suppliers to Toyota who are affected. There's another thousand companies, according to the Australian Industry Group, underpinning these suppliers.

"This is a bigger job loss than Ansett ever was. Tens of thousands of people and it's not just confined to the western suburbs of Melbourne … there are car component makers in Brisbane, Sydney, Geelong will be massively affected, Melbourne, all of the suburbs and regions of Melbourne, and of course Adelaide, just to name some of the regions."

Labor's industry spokesman, Kim Carr, said it was a "lie" for the government to suggest nothing could have been done to prevent the decision. Carr said when the Australian government "chose to drive General Motors Holden out of Australia with their repeated demands on that company, the die was cast".

"And when the prime minister on 14 December said that there would be no more money for Toyota, he sent a very strong signal that there would be no future for vehicle manufacturing in Australia with Toyota," Carr told reporters.

"Six months ago I was the minister for innovation and industry. I was discussing with Toyota the possibility of them investing not in one model but two.

"There is no doubt in my mind that if the Labor government had been returned this would not have happened, that the Toyota motor company was very interested in future investment, as was General Motors. But this is a government that walked away from jobs in Australia."

Carr said Australia's subsidies to car makers had been low by international standards and the loss of the industry would cost the country more than the $500m provided by taxpayers each year at present. He pointed to flow-on impacts for sectors such as aluminium, glass, electronics, textile, research and development, robotics, design, engineering.

"Aerospace, for instance, directly depends on the skills that are developed in the auto industry," Carr said.

Labor's employment spokesman, Brendan O'Connor, called on the government to outline exactly what plans it had to provide "intensive personalised assistance" for affected workers to find new job opportunities, saying the task was not easy and could not wait until 2017.

O'Connor called on the Victorian government to reverse vocational training cuts.

The employment minister, Eric Abetz, said Toyota's decision had taken him by surprise and was "a matter of great regret". He condemned Labor and the Greens in the Senate for blocking the abolition of the "job-destroying" carbon and mining taxes.

Abetz said the high cost of manufacturing cited by Toyota must include the cost of labour, but added that he was not placing great stress on that factor.

But Shorten accused the government of shedding "crocodile tears" and dismissed Abetz's comments about the carbon tax and workers' costs as a "complete joke".

"It is very likely that whatever the government wants to do on climate change they'll get through the Senate in July," Shorten told the ABC. "Toyota know that. As for Eric Abetz kicking workers when they're down at least he's true to form. How dare he blame thousands of car workers.

Shorten said the Coalition government did not "give a stuff about manufacturing in Australia", while Carr predicted that a prolonged and deep crisis within Australian manufacturing would trigger the worst economic crisis since the great depression.

But Abbott said: "Oppositions have a tendency to talk our country down and I'm not sure that that's really what we really need on a day like this … There will be better days ahead, there always are, that's what we should focus on as well as grieve with people who are lamenting the passing of what has been a fine business."