Successive Governments erred by not taking equity in the car manufacturers in lieu of State aid. At least the taxpayer would now own the realestate..eh?
IMO, Aus still has an opportunity to manufacture specialist vehicles in the top end price range in low volume such as HD 4x4 for hot desert conditions ; military style units with no plastic shit @ say $200K/pop.
Also we have an opportunity to manufacture an Aussie super iconic sports car with the customer's choice of powertrain . EG: Benz, BMW etc. This, IMO, could be priced in the $300K to $400K price range. Produced in say just less than 100 per year per model variant, these would not need crash barrier testing.
If such projects qualified for Government R&D funds, then the condition ought to be that the brand is inalienably 100% Aussie owned; otherwise if successful, the multinationals would gobble it up and spirit it overseas.
