The industry’s demise is a tipping point in Australia’s political economy. It’s a victory for consumers over the ineffectiveness of subsidisation. It’s a sign that after 23 years of continuous economic growth and wealth creation, the consumption side of the economy has become more powerful than the production side. Cashed-up shoppers are exercising greater purchasing muscle than the feeble industry plans of union hand-maidens like Carr. Consumerism has finally beaten interventionism.
It is a very interesting view point. I would like to throw into that mix our flood of migrants over the last 30 years and before. Almost all come from countries where the European and Japanese cars are well known. Australian cars are an unknown quantity, made in a Southern hemisphere backwater. So why should those migrants favour an Australian made car over imports?
