Hope the new government stops propping up a dying industry.
This is the attitude I don't understand. There seems to be this perception that, because the companies concerned are multinationals, rather than truly Australian, they don't deserve local support from governments.
Other countries provide higher levels of support or protection for their motor industries, because of the strategic importance of the industry to their economies and the potential importance for industrial self-reliance the industry imposes. That was one of the principal reasons behind the Chifley Government providing the money to encourage local production after World War II and the reasons are just as valid today. Perhaps the biggest difference these days is that the population is far less parochial than it was during the '40's and national pride doesn't seem to count for very much, except on sporting fields.
It's fair to say that the main reason Ford and Holden are in strife is because their bread and butter local models no longer represent the sort of cars that Australians want. The failure to read the market during the past decade means that they are too far behind the eight ball now to be able to develop and manufacture the right cars for today. The Territory is the only local car that even approaches the "ideal" family car today and it is nearing the end of its model life, with no local replacement planned. Why did this happen? Ford had the right car in 2004 but it was based on the Falcon, which was doomed. Manufacturing costs in this country are too high and the economies of scale are non-existent. Ford's refusal to develop local cars with exports in mind really arose because Dearborn didn't want the Falcon to compete with other Ford models world-wide.
Holden, however, made huge efforts to develop export markets and even today, when the writing is on the wall, they are pushing a new export market for the VF in the USA as a Chev. It will be very interesting to see what sort of numbers they can sell that car in over there, because the previous effort with the VE was limited by the American auto unions, who didn't want imported GM products to cut into local production. Not sure how they see this latest effort, but if they act in the same manner this time, production numbers for VF exports will again be artificially restricted, which could lead to cessation of VF production earlier than planned.
I believe that, while ever local manufacturers are actively trying to improve the breed, such as the VF, and develop new and existing export markets, they deserve some form of government assistance, because of the impact on local industry and employment that their closure would entail.
