Within two years from now, Australian automobile manufacturing will end. Ford is closing shop, Holden and Toyota are closing shop, and the rest have already cleared out, some long ago, others, more recently. For a country that has a geographical layout that requires engineers to design cars that can endure abuse and austere conditions, has entire racing series dedicated to their home vehicles, and is home to some of the most fanatical motorsports fans in the world, it makes no sense on the surface how this all has come to be and how there isn’t a fix in sight.
With an influx of manufacturers importing vehicles into Australia, a low import tariff, a strong Australian dollar, and a decline in markets to which Holden and Ford of Australia can import to, there isn’t much hope to hold on to. Currently the best plans are for the Australian arms to turn into research and design groups. Ford of Australia is responsible for the global Ranger platform (the one we don’t get) and the upcoming Everest SUV, while Holden will keep the Lang Lang Proving Grounds open.
The New York Times recently published an article written by John Mellnor, the publisher of GoAuto.com.au, and his take on Australia’s manufacturing implosion is sobering. From the early days of Thompson steam cars and Tarrant automobiles to the final days of Holden and Ford of Australia, he covers everything, from where it started, to where it went right, and to where it went very, very wrong. This is a must-read.
The New York Times: Australia’s Once-Vibrant Auto Industry Crashes in Slow Motion
Also our Prime Idiot just signed a trade agreement with China and India. funny that our auto manufacturing industry was an obstacle in the past.
Prime Minister Tony (my brain is like a bucket of snot) Abbot announced the end of the auto industry within weeks of being elected. Hmmmm
This was a reluctant admission by our treasurer Joe (the count) Hockey in an interview recently.
The NYTimes article is pretty much a crock of ___ ! What killed off the Australian automotive industry was the Australian government and the voters Finally coming to the conclusion that all the subsidies , tax breaks , government loans , government handouts etc were costing the Australian Tax Payers twice as much as any viable and real benefits they were reaping ..
… hence cutting off all the handouts bailouts etc …. the result being since the automakers were incapable of standing on their own two feet without all that tax payers money falling into their bank accounts ..
… and closing up shop .
A lesson we’d [ US ] damn well better learn sooner than later before we waste anymore of our hard earned cash on an Industry incapable of sustaining itself or even following a reasonable business model
Or to sum it up more succinctly
The Australian automotive industry with absolute intent and forethought shot itself in the foot … with the Aussie Tax payers finally saying …. Enough !
Question is …. when the hell are we [ US tax payers and government ] finally going to say ..
Enough !
Bingo!! Exactly what I thinking.
ColoradoKid, what a goose!
The story is 100% correct. The Aussie taxpayers have now lost an entire industry and with the dollar sliding you’re going to be the goose that pays the golden egg for every new car you buy from now on.
A little Post-WWII history, and a comment: Asian countries, having either been saved or burned hard by U.S. manufacturing capacity during the war, clearly see the value of having a strong manufacturing sector of their own so their governments thus support manufacturing. That support and the sacrifices of their populations eventually leads to being able to undercut the existing powers, whose consumers are happy to scoop up cheaper product. Traditional industrial-power governments, voted in by folks who now enjoy being able to buy cars from Japan and Korea and Barbie dolls made for pennies in the lowly China, don’t see the harm in trading off industrial capacity to those countries that are willing to beg, buy or “borrow” for it…
…After all, who doesn’t want a good $40,000 car for $25,000? Or cheaper plastic toys?
Next thing you know, the Chinese aren’t just making Barbie dolls for Mattel. They’re making fighter jets, for China. Pretty good ones, that look a lot like the Western-power kind. And their people are into it, guys and gals everywhere are getting qualified to build. Meanwhile, American kids prefer to get a career at Starbucks ’cause who wants to work in a dirty old factory anyway?
Just the way the wind blows. Someday we may be paying a price, for going with that wind… Only it seems odd, that the Australians are willing to go first.
So right.
Because the master doesn’t see what he’s doing or has been doing through his rose tinted specs, the apprentice out plays him once he’s learned what he needs to know and fucks him over properly.
It’s been going on decade after decade in the industrialised countries and people are still not learning because they are being feed shit by the greedy corporations/media/governments who tell them the bigger the companies the better. And (most) people believe it.
Couldn’t agree with above comment from Loren.
With the car industry all but screwed here down under (Aus) ,seems nearly every manufacturing industry is winding down because it cheaper to get it in from China.
I even went to a auction recently to buy some mill and lathe tooling, apparently the factory used to make hot water heating elements and employed around three hundred. It was both eiry and quite sad to be there whilst wondering what the three hundred people are doing now. While we bring the elements from guess where – CHINA
Don’t get me wrong – not being disrespectful of the Chinese people but we are giving them way to much power.
Just about everything these days is made in China because what I see happening from tyre manufacturing to intricate parts made on cnc mills and lathes is we take/send machinery over there and train people who once were happy to grow rice to make things cheaply because their labour cost are low.
As Loren stated ,sure we get cheaper Barbie Dolls,plasma TV’s, pushbikes, I could go on and on whilst our industry grinds to a slow pain full death.
And what do the overseas people do with all this new found wealth – come to our country and buy up real estate houses, units, cattle/beef stations.
We are even seeing a big increase of people being sent from overseas attending Uni in this country (something only the wealthy families could previously do) but while they are here studying they attend property auctions and buy up big forcing a lot of our younger generation out of the property market.
Just where do you think all this new found wealth is coming from?? Our own money coming back to eventually buy us out. All because we ALL want cheap EVERTHING – believe me its going to BITE us in the ASS HARD.
I find it SAD that during the war Asian countries had us in their sites for a take over. Luckily our fathers/grandfathers stood up and stopped the attacks/invasion only to see two or three generations go bye and one day as Loren says we will be serving them coffee in Starbucks/Macdonalds because there will no industry to support ourselves.
The rumour is even our once great mining BOOM is slowing. And even some of it is owned by overseas companies.
Another bizarre example of getting CHINA cheap – there is a factory in a nearby suburb where people with disabilities pack items for different companies, whilst there is possibly some Government funding it creates meaningful employment to people who are doing the best of their abilities. I recently read in the news paper they are closing it and many other similar facilities down because its cheaper to box all the items up in a container send it to China , have it packed there and then send it back. WTF
Just my rant and two bobs worth – but I worry for our future generations.
For what its worth I drive a Holden car and a truck from the US , I recently bought a fridge that says it was assembled in the US. I do believe in supporting local.
Its all over. I have family in Italy and Italians love clothes. My aunt came here and we took her shopping one night,she said she could not believe all the clothes here in good stores were made in china but now even over there ,in the land of guys that have not worked in forever but have 400 dollar italian shoes are they selling plenty of Chinese clothes.
As an Australian, it’s hard to see the industry go. When I bought my first car (a $500 1989 Ford Fairlane) I was derided by my friends for buying something old and Aussie, and told I should have bought a cheap import instead. I’ve had the Fairlane for 3 years, and it has outlasted all of my friends Cherys and Great Walls, and was only retired because I needed a car for work, and was replaced by a Falcon ute.
If the health of your car industry was based on the government using tariffs to keep the competition out, it wasn’t healthy to begin with. Consumers should be able to choose without government incentives