Sorry in advance to sound so cynical, but bloody politicians make me feel this way. The b@&tards assess a situation, do a risk management on it then do the thing which will best protect their sorry backsides.
As you might expect State Government is fizzing at the bung now the announcement has been made trying to make political hay out of the situation by making paternalistic statements about how much they care about the Ford workers and trying to work out a scheme to ensure they're looked after in terms of redeployment... but I listened to an interview with the State Treasurer John Brumby who as much as said Geelong had a robust economy and 600 jobs wouldn't matter that much.
What I read from that is they've assessed the political implications for the closure and are prepared to make a lot of noise and do a few things on the edges, but they're unlikely to try to save the plant because the risk to them wouldn't justify the return.
The Geelong factory is where our Ford CMPs were built - it would be a sad thing to see it go - quite apart from the toll of buggering up so many people's livlihoods who are currently employed there. The ultimate threat of Ford pulling out of manufacture altogether in Australia is perhaps something which would make them take more interest on a Federal level as happened with Mitsubishi in Adelaide.
My sympathies are with you, Ryan and your mates at the Plant.