You will want to read this

[SnowDoggyDogg]

Agreed Sabbath.

Of course when AUD is 60 cents to the USD those ' high wages' are relatively modest in comparison to building in other western countries.

Crank the AUD to parity or at its worst $1.10+ USD and those Aussie wages become comparatively uncompetitive as they nearly double input costs.

We literally are (mis)managed by a pack of self-interested idiots who can't see the bigger picture and think beyond the next four years (probably less) election cycle.

I remember pollies crowing about our new found 'purchasing power' because they didn't devalue our dollar like every 'better' managed economy was.

Guess what - Nobody wanted to buy our now super expensive stuff that used to be affordably priced and we lost nearly every export manufacturer in a matter of years. Those advanced manufacturing businesses and skills are the things every country desperatly needs after a recession hits and they need to productively lift themselves out of economic depression. Baristas, banksters and real estate agents aren't going to get us going after this next recession 'we had to have' again.

 

[VS 5.0]

I agree that mining export is going gang busters in WA but CAPEX investment has fallen off a cliff (compared to the last 10 years) as no new projects of significance are going forward. Operating a mine employs a fraction of the workforce it takes to set one up. This would be offset had we installed a decent tax on mining exports back in time to shovel money into a rainy day sovereign investment fund (like Norway does with their North sea oil fields) but I digress.
The high WA port volumes are matched by equally high and unsustainable stockpiling of our high quality ore product at Chinese ports... in actuality its a glut that will savage ore prices over the coming years.

Like I said, we don't deserve the manufacturing base our forefathers built because of poor management across both sides of politics and all levels of government for many decades now. Allowing our dollar to climb so high against USD was full retard and has effectively nuked our competitive advantage in a global stage.

No argument from me.

The WA Nats leader got rolled at the recent election coz he wanted to extract a hgher charge from the big boys for digging **** out of the ground. They ran a multi million dollar campaign against the idea via their wholely owned entity that most people think is independent and won the day.

It's just the pedant in me that comes to the surface when the mining boom is incorrectly referred to.

 

[Immortality]

If the cost of labor was the only reason GM shut down manufacturing in Aussie it would a very poor reason. Unions are just easy targets for the media/Joe public to moan about.

Fact is you will never be competitive with the labor cost of those Asian countries so you may as well stop flogging a dead horse!

Unions are a necessary evil unfortunately, there are plenty of unscrupulous employers about that will take advantage of employees should the opportunity arise without somebody to keep em in check, I see this on a regular basis.

 

[Fekason]

For all those who are wringing their hands over the demise of the Australian built Commodore, I would ask how many NEW Commodores have you bought over the past 10-12 years because if the answer is none then you have done stuff all for local manufacturing and your decision not to buy a NEW Commodore has contributed to the demise of the industry. (No - buying a second hand unit counts for nothing because the guy that bought the Commodore new did all the heavy lifting, not you).

For one, I am unhappy that the RWD Commodore (with a manual option on the V6) is no more. But I think that I have done my bit - three new VE's and three new VF's since December 2008.

 

[dgp]

Yep, I'm unhappy too.
I purchased the following commodores new, so feel I have done my part;
VU S pack
VY SS Ute
VYII Wagon 25th Anniversary
VE SSV Wagon
VEII SS Ute
VFI CalaisV Sedan
VFII Redline Sedan

 

[Fekason]

Well, the era of new Holden 6 cylinder manual cars appears to be over. My research shows that the last new SV6 manual available in the country sold in FNQ in the last week.

There appear to be only four demos to go Australia wide, two of which were built late 2015. Sad day for me.

 

[Immortality]

Moyes Holden has apparently received the last shipment of new V8 models allocated for NZ......