The last Aussie made Holden rolls off the assembly-line in Adelaide today which marks the end of Aussie car
manufacturing. If Holden were to be a person then there would be a solemn obituary. But of course Holden
is a division of General Motors Inc which is globalised: manufacture in the world's cheapest jurisdictions and
sell in the world's richest markets.
We can blame Governments &Trade Unions for the demise of Australian car manufacturing (Truck assembly
will soon follow) but the brute reality is:
-economy of manufacturing scale-we need half a million cars/p/a plants and that's not possible without export.
-small domestic market
-free trade agreements with Japan, South Korea & Thailand (all motor manufacturing countries)
So where from here?
Just import increasing numbers of new cars and sink our balance of trade worse than it is at present
or fight back?
How might we fight back?
(a) Manufacture aluminium castings for the global auto industry
( If Japan, Korea & China can import Aussie alumina with coal & gas to generate electricity to smelt the alumina cast/machine with the minimum of labour, then why can we not do that given that we own oodles of bauxite, coal & gas. This is not rocket science for God's sake!) This is what the Federal Government should be investing its lazy $1
billion in rather than a stupid railway which Adani will build one way or the other. The objective should be to
balance trade by exporting as much alloy components as we import vehicles.)
(b)Allow the import of used cars by recognising Japanese Auto Safety Standards.
(As such, we could then import good Japanese used cars for a quarter of their new replacement price and at
half the price of domestic equivalents. This would give the Australian working class some benefit from our
Japan FTA rather than all downside by putting our manufacturing out of business)
We are spending $billions on our Politicians and all they can do is to throw muck at one another while the
country economically goes down the drain. We need to get past the blame game, pull our finger out and
act on our strengths; not our weaknesses.
What are we?............more smart assed than smart!
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