The government will work with Toyota to ensure the automotive sector remains viable in Australia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott says.
Holden's US owners General Motors announced on Wednesday it would stop making cars in Australia from 2017, shedding almost 3000 jobs in Victoria and South Australia.
This leaves Toyota as the major car maker, but there is speculation it could also go due to supply chain problems after GM's decision as well as business cost pressures.
Mr Abbott said generous assistance had been offered to keep Holden in Australia "within the parameters" of the coalition's industry policy taken to the election.
"I deeply regret for the last three months, which is as long as we have been in government, we haven't been able to hold Holden," Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
"But the fact is there was already money on the table.
"The challenge now is to ensure, as far as we reasonably can, that Toyota stays and that is what we are working on."
Mr Abbott said it was wrong to engage in recriminations, lay blame or peddle false hope about Holden.
"The important thing now is to build the kind of economy that will create the jobs of the future in successful, competitive, world-leading businesses and that is why the government is so determined to get taxes down and regulation down," he said.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said he had hoped Holden could hold off its decision until a Productivity Commission report was completed in early 2014, so the government could consider a new car industry policy.
Mr Abbott said that once companies decided their operations were not going to be viable for the long-term "it's very hard to hold them".
