Greens bill to widen car funding plan

The Australian Greens will seek the backing of parliament for a bill to expand car industry assistance.

The Greens will move a bill in the Senate next week to change the rules of the Automotive Transformation Scheme to open up hundreds of millions of dollars more for car component makers.

The Abbott government this week put car industry assistance, which was set to be scrapped as a budget saving, back on the table to shore up jobs in the sector until 2017.

However, the Greens fear that the government will still pocket $800 million out of the $900 million scheme because of the wind-down in car production as the three big makers - Holden, Ford and Toyota - pull out of Australia.

The legislation will make the full $900 million available to SA and Victoria, with funds flowing to a wider number of car parts makers especially those supporting electric and low pollution cars.