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A bloody good reason to subsidise car making

Tony White

by Tony White

02 Feb 05:40am

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Filed under: Car Industry, Economy, Manufacturing, Mining

53 comments

The announcement by Toyota of several hundred job losses this week is certainly alarming and it will have had and will continue to have ramifications for the broader industry.

Keep doing this or enjoy the oh-what-a-feeling of becoming a banana republic. Pic:

But it will only mark the end of the industry if we as a society say we don’t want manufacturing and we are happy to simply be China’s quarry and maybe a second tier tourist destination.

In all the hyperbole and wild statements we hear about our mining industry, we rarely hear some of the uncomfortable truths. That it’s only 9 per cent of the economy, that it is the cause of the high Australian dollar which is putting pressure on our manufacturers and farmers, and that, at its best, it really only represents the highest aspirations of the average third world dictator.

This is because if we as a society and economy continue with an unhealthy focus on mining then all we will ever be is a country that’s really good at digging holes and selling the dirt – nothing but a jazzed up Sovereign Hill that is forever subject to the economic fortunes and the strategic benevolence of the rest of the world.

If all we do is mining then we won’t be the country that cured a cancer, which pioneered new modes of transport, that created new engineering solutions to our energy challenges, or that had good jobs for the 300,000 Victorians who work in the manufacturing sector, and huge numbers of workers in other states too.

Without a solid manufacturing base we lose a whole range of industries that benefit from the diversity and resilience of a sector that benefit’s from global investment in innovation, research and productive capacity. Without a solid manufacturing sector to underpin our modern economy and way of life, we will have to content ourselves with living in shipping containers in the Pilbara; which we rent for $1500 per week.

It’s not just our lifestyle that is supported by the manufacturing sector, it is our ability to live it. In the great wars that Australia has endured over the last 100 years our local manufacturing capacity underpinned our capacity to win those conflicts.

Our great friends the US are not so great that they share all their defence industry intellectual property with us, and our geography means that we must be prepared for interruption of supply lines and information. We cannot simply invent a manufacturing sector when we find that we have a strategic imperative to have one. It’s why there is some very good strategic sense not just pork barrelling for Adelaide and Williamstown in making our own submarines and our own frigates.

And so we come to the events of this week. Some commentators have said it is time to choose whether we have an automotive industry. Some conclude, perhaps sharing some of the argument’s outlined here, that we must have one but it must be different.

For some the recipe required is old fashioned Soviet collectivisation, somehow forcing the three remaining carmakers into one big production line… somewhere. That approach of putting all the eggs in one basket would be a fatal exacerbation of an existing frailty within the Australian car industry that relates to its scale.

The late Geoff Polites was rightly hailed as the man who saved Ford in Australia. He oversaw the BA Falcon and the Ford Territory - popular cars that may have robbed sales from each other, but restored the stocks of Ford’s locally produced vehicles and the brand more generally. Yet Polities was very nearly the end of Ford when he oversaw the droopy looking and wildly unpopular AU Falcon. In truth he was lucky to get the go ahead from the parent company for another model run.

These examples indicate how an automotive company is only as good as its next model. What Australian car makers need to do if they want an industry is attract the next model. Our industry puts out about 250,000 vehicles every year. In China or the US that can be between 400,0000 to 1 million cars per year per factory and so to compete we need to do more with the scale we have.

Ford has learnt and offers more models and variants than its earlier days and Holden is the marvel of the automotive world in the way that it can deliver more than 20 variants of the same platform off one production line. Toyota has benefitted from a global parent that understands global platforms may be standardised but need diverse production to mitigate supply risks and utilise broader sources of innovation.

Three different approaches spring from an organic diversity that allows the local industry to support many thousands of employees in the supply chain who manufacture parts for all three car makers.

And all three are supported by subsidies; on the whole subsidies to the auto industry are a lot more transparent than elsewhere. But this website has also been effectively subsidised by the government subsidisation of university journalism courses, and our agriculture draws heavily on taxpayer funds for research.

At the end of the day, virtually every industry gets some form of subsidy, and we should actively decide whether we want to subsidise these industries. But the whole world is playing the subsidy game and if we don’t play it in some form, then we should start choosing our shipping container houses in the Pilbara now.

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53 comments

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    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      05:03am | 02/02/12

      The trouble is that car manufacturing industry doesn’t have a natural constituency. Agriculture has the National Party for its subsidies, Private Health Insurance and Private Education has the Liberal Party, even Education has the ALP as their natural party. Not many votes in car manufacturing unfortunately

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      07:42am | 02/02/12

      Don’t subsidise the car industry.  If we don’t do anything, we can’t make any mistakes ! (I learned that from the Liberal party ! )

    • Andrew says:

      11:38am | 02/02/12

      Exactly what agricultural subsidies would they be Shane.

    • bobthefarmer says:

      07:08pm | 02/02/12

      Typical city slicker, has no idea beyond the end of the freeway,

    • BJ says:

      08:22pm | 02/02/12

      @Andrew

      Paying less than the minimum wage that other employers need to pay is a subsidy of sorts.

    • Andrew says:

      09:51pm | 02/02/12

      Sorry BJ, but what are you talking about?

    • Andrew says:

      10:00pm | 02/02/12

      Enlighten me BJ, exactly what areas of agriculture do they pay less then the minimum wage of $15/hr

    • Nathan says:

      05:23am | 02/02/12

      “In the great wars that Australia has endured over the last 100 years our local manufacturing capacity underpinned our capacity to win those conflicts.” Australia beat the Germans and Japanese with no help, because of manufacturing? Ok i will go with that but we weren’t manufacturing cars and we still seemed to survive.

      ” Our industry puts out about 250,000 vehicles every year. In China or the US that can be between 400,0000 to 1 million cars per year per factory and so to compete we need to do more with the scale we have.” Companies are talking about scaling back and job losses and you want to ramp up production in an industry that is not competitive, that makes no business sense. I highly doubt Australian made cars will ever have demand outside of Australia and i doubt we need a million new cars every year domestically

      “At the end of the day, virtually every industry gets some form of subsidy, ” maybe but to what extent. Why your at how long is a piece of string?

      To say we need car manufacturing so we are not a one speed economy is ridiculous. You drift in and out of talking about Manufacturing generally then car manufacturing specifically and make assumption that manufacturing would be true for car manufacturing as well.

      Reply

    • hendrikus van hasselt says:

      06:38am | 02/02/12

      Australia did not beat either the Germans or the Japanese, it was part of a coalition that did so. The main contributor being the then soviet union, without who’s participation the war would have been most certainly lost.
      This all has nothing to do with building subsidised cars in Australia.

    • Nathan says:

      08:06am | 02/02/12

      @hendrikus van hasselt
      I know that you are right, i only meant that even if you accept that it is true it is still a rubbish argument

    • acotrel says:

      08:15am | 02/02/12

      After WW2 we had a Liberal gover nment which sat on its hands for 15 years while the rest of the world re-industrialised.  We won the war, but lost the peace ! - Opportunity lost and it will happen again !

    • dale says:

      06:18am | 02/02/12

      How much is the subsidy? How many workers does the industry employ?

      It may be more cost effective for the government to employ the workers to stay at home. i mean workers not the CEO’s who are on 20x what the workers are.

      Or we could ban all foreign made cars but trade wars are harsh things and not to be rushed into.

      Maybe the industry could make better vehicles investing into new tech but investing money for the future means a lower dividend for shareholders.

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      11:06am | 02/02/12

      @dale
      Many cost /benefit analyses are unethical, and some things are worth doing because they are simply good things to do ! We have a choice - we can lay down and die, or we can address the quality issues and move forward.  I could believe more in the subsidy if the car manufacturers raced their cars in open competition.  It would give the impetus for R&D as the complaints process is much shorter.  As it is the Australian customer will again be supplied with substandard product, and we’ll find competing globally very difficult

    • Fred says:

      07:10am | 02/02/12

      Bring back the Escort. Except make it reliable. Look at the Mazda 3, it looks good and has a bit of guts. Pretty simple formula I reckon.

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      10:04am | 02/02/12

      I drive a Mazda 6 with a six speed manual gearbox - brilliant car ! It’s even got a CD player which plays MP3s GMH could learn from that - If you turned the volume up you might not hear their rattely engine !

    • Fred says:

      10:44am | 02/02/12

      You’re a dying breed driving a manual! Actually come to think of it given that most people drive autos there’s probably not much point in bringing back the Escort.

    • acotrel says:

      11:10am | 02/02/12

      @Fred
      I usually drive it in top gear on the highway.  However lat year I took it to Tassie, and drove it from Queenstown to Stahan.  I used every gear many times up and down through the box.  It was almost as good as a motorcycle !

    • acotrel says:

      11:16am | 02/02/12

      I’ve driven the Mazda6 with the auto box.  I didn’t get to use the manual shift, but I didn’t like the lack of engine braking.  The Mazda 3 has the steering wheel mounted paddle shift, just like the Ferrari.  It would be intersting t o try driving that hard through a twisty r oad.  I don’t usually expect to actually have fun driving a car, but these new Mazdas actually do it for me a little bit.
      If you were thinking of buying a mazda3 auto, it’d be worth talking gently t o the dealer and taking it somewhere where you could really exert it.

    • acotrel says:

      11:21am | 02/02/12

      I actually drove an Escort a few years ago, it was rear wheel drive, and the way it felt, you just had to stick the boot into it.  They were not t oo bad.  With as good manually controlled mutispeed box auto like the Mazda 3, they’d be good !

    • thatmosis says:

      07:21am | 02/02/12

      The main problem I see is that now that the government is going to prop up this industry the Unions will once again go for extra money for no extra productivity. They will surmise that since the Tax payer is giving the company money to survive they may as well get in for their bit as well.
        I suppose it never crosses their tiny minds that one of the reasons that Australian goods are so expensive is the Unions habit of asking for more for less and having this government back them up. What a crock

      Reply

    • Nathan says:

      08:14am | 02/02/12

      That link you have made between unions and cost effectiveness is a little lose their. So many other issues with the industry that has nothing to do with unions, and when has the union for these workers been making demands of late?

      You don’t like unions what ever but not everything productivity related is their fault.

      Even if they where you are happy for foreign companies to get money but don’t think workers deserve any assistance. Union members are not typically our highest earners not in manufacturing at least and your more than happy to have a go at any request they make or haven’t made in this case.

      The only time Unions where mentioned in this piece was in the comments section, yet your already up in arms about them

    • acotrel says:

      10:09am | 02/02/12

      @thatmosis
      The main problem I see with it is that the quality of the product might not be improved,  by using our creative abilities to their maximum potential.  So we will still not be able to compete globally using our strengths.

    • thatmosis says:

      10:15am | 02/02/12

      Nathan, I had Union workers for a while in my business and all I got was grief. I sacked the lot and took them all back as contractors and my business florished and their wages almost doubled as they were paid piece work and they realised that they could make better money working for 8 hours instead of standing around scratching their collective arses. Unions are there to protect the worker, bullshit, they are there to make an employers life miserable and live off the fat of the land from union contributions and this government backs that.

    • acotrel says:

      11:27am | 02/02/12

      @thatmosis
      ’ Unions are there to protect the worker, bullshit, they are there to make an employers life miserable and live off the fat of the land from union contributions and this government backs that’

      Why don’t the Germans have those problems ? Their businesses are highly unionised , and the most successful on the planet ! A militant union in an Australian workplace usually indicates that the employer is a GRUB !

    • John F says:

      07:31am | 02/02/12

      I will only make comment about Holden as it’s the easiest to fix.
      Holden should be exporting more, not as Chev’s, Pontiac’s or Vauxhauls but as Holdens. The performance models from Holden have been very well received oversea’s but unfortunatly badge engineering cheapens the product. People who are looking to buy a performance car know a lot about the car before the purchase and putting a different badge on it to suit a particular country makes the purchase seem fake eg a Fiat with a Ferrari badge ! Holden can step up it’s product and export world wide, the Germans do it very well and so should we. Just make sure they are sold as Holdens and not Vauxhauls.

      Reply

    • Ben C says:

      10:40am | 02/02/12

      @ John F

      By that logic, would you then take the Barina as a Daewoo, or the Astra as a Vauxhall or Opel? Honest question, because it all comes down to perception - how do overseas markets perceive the Holden brand? Are Americans more likely to buy a GTO Coupe if it has the Holden/HSV, Pontiac or Chevrolet badge? Will Europeans buy a Holden-built car with the Holden/HSV, Vauxhall or Opel badge?

      Alternatively, should GM scrap all of its different badges, and sell all their cars under the one badge?

    • TheRealDave says:

      03:33pm | 02/02/12

      I’ve often scratched my head and wondered how putting a Chev badge on your Commodore suddenly made it less Bogan??

      TRD’s 1st Law of Inverse Boganomics

    • John F says:

      04:13pm | 02/02/12

      Holden has a heritage of performance cars, its just that the world is ignorant of it. Badge engineering works for the type of cars that people choose because of colour or “style” Performance cars are bought by enthusiasts who learn about the cars before purchasing them. Badge engineering these cars is insulting to the purchaser eg a Chev Corvette, how about a Holden Corvette ? It would be a travisty. The type 60 Monaro replacment and the current 6.0 litre HSV could be sold in droves oversea’s with the right marketing. Australian car manufacturers have to become bolder and push our unique product to the world as a Holden, not a Vauxhaul, Opel or Chev. Toyota created Lexus to export to the world, the name means Luxury Export United States, That worked so why cant Holden ?

    • Tubesteak says:

      07:44am | 02/02/12

      “China’s quarry and maybe a second tier tourist destination”

      If you really think that’s all that’s left of the Australian economy then you are sorely mistaken. What do you think all the doctors, lawyers and bankers are doing? They’re not concerned too much with Australia’s manufacturing base. We’ve already seen Labor make some good inroads into making Australia a regional financial services hub. This is where our future lies. Not in an industry that has to rely on significant protectionism to keep going because it’s really a third world adjunct in a first world economy.

      The fact you try to tie in the need for manufacturing with the possibility of war also shows you are stuck in a time warp. It’s not 1940 anymore. Any decent sized conflict between sovereign nations would be over in less than half a day with a giant radioactive crater as the result. We don’t need a manufacturing industry to manufacture bullets and tanks. Just a few ICBMs and that will end anything very quickly. The US has enough of those. Moreover, everyone knows it’s more profitable to sell a man something than try to fight him.

      Reply

    • John F says:

      08:05am | 02/02/12

      Financial services hub pfffffft what crap ! If you cant touch something it has little worth, I used to hear the crap about all the money being in software and not hardware, hows that going ? Apple has proven that you need both to have a good product. We must make stuff that we export or we risk loosing our ability to be independant.  Just look at the rise of China, why ? because they make stuff. You can bullshit all you like about making money in an office behind a keyboard but at the end of the day it will fade away. If you cant touch it it’s worthless in the end.

    • John F says:

      08:05am | 02/02/12

      Financial services hub pfffffft what crap ! If you cant touch something it has little worth, I used to hear the crap about all the money being in software and not hardware, hows that going ? Apple has proven that you need both to have a good product. We must make stuff that we export or we risk loosing our ability to be independant.  Just look at the rise of China, why ? because they make stuff. You can bullshit all you like about making money in an office behind a keyboard but at the end of the day it will fade away. If you cant touch it it’s worthless in the end.

    • Tubesteak says:

      12:33pm | 02/02/12

      John F
      Facebook and Google. Both multi-billion companies that produce “nothing”. Many companies don’t produce anything. Look at your typical law firm or accounting firm. PwC generate a billion dollars in revenue every year. No-one would honestly say that audited financial reports and tax returns are things you can hold.

      China goes well because it has an abundant supply of cheap labour. Australia doesn’t. The comparison is invalid. The first world now has to rely on intellectual productivity. The developing world can be the trained monkeys. Eloi vs Morlock.

      Stop living in the 1950s and learn the difference between “losing” and “loosing”. The latter isn’t even a word.

    • John F says:

      06:15pm | 02/02/12

      @Tubesteak, lawyers, accountants, finacial experts, bankers etc are parasites that only survive on the back of the people who create things. If you take mining out of our current position we are stuffed ! Guess what you can touch that stuff too. Facebook etc is only worth money because of advertising. It’s a false industry where most of the profits go to a small group of people. Do you really think that everything we own right now will still be around in 100 years ? It is all slowly replaced, manufacturing is the way it is replaced. The auto industry (I know this because I work in R&D electronics) are the Kings of R&D and product development. No other group of companys requires such a broad scope of research. These company’s use a diverse range of services to achive the final product. We could be building mining equipment in Australia, we could be building Very Fast Trains, we could be building aircraft and in doing this we would have a stronger country. Software, finance, banking, investments, insurance etc are crap ! They can very easily be replaced by computers and oversea’s workers. Learn from the past ! Germany nearly won the war because of how good they could make things. To think that manufacturing has had its day in Australia is as dum as the paperless office. Once China has manufacturing by the balls because Western company’s have lost their skills watch the prices go up ! We will be 3rd world and they will be the masters. All Australia will be is a tourist destination. Oh big deal about spelling, give me a C- teacher !

    • sir ronald bradnam says:

      07:49am | 02/02/12

      The problem with the Australian Manufacturing sector and a lot of other industries is that they are all claiming they need a handout to stay competitive, couple that with a government that is intent on giving away other peoples money and redistributing the wealth and we create an uncompetitive workforce.
      No one is buying our cars overseas, no one is coming as a tourist and this is because our labour costs and cost of goods have become uncompetitive with the rest of the developing world, the more politicians try to protect the status quo, the worse the long term outcome. The world is changing and we need to adapt now to survive
      In a true free market economy there would be no tarifs, no handouts little government interference, does that sound like us, no way.

      Reply

    • Economic Irrationalists Unite! says:

      08:40am | 02/02/12

      These arguments always boil down to some version of the thesis that manufacturing is somehow better than other industries. I dunno where this idea comes from. For one thing, the workers in manufacturing always seem so unhappy. One could be forgiven for assuming that they would rather throw back tinnies at some forlorn picket line with their bellies hanging out of their dirty blue singlets than actually working on those production lines so celebrated by the gimme subsidies set. They do still pay their union dues, of course, which helps get the lefties excited about their ‘strategic importance’.

      Also, Tony, I really doubt that we will fight our next war with V6 family sedans and assorted automotive componentry. Not to mention, what makes you think that throwing money at Detroit and Tokyo will stop them shuttering plants when it has failed so comprehensively in the past? That would seem to correspond to that working definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

      Two articles in the Punch today by talking heads demanding patronage from the government. How dreary.

      Reply

    • Super D says:

      09:42am | 02/02/12

      Spot on - we all want to live in a country that “makes things”.  We don’t want to make things ourselves or for our children to do it, we just want other people to do it so we can be proud by association.  It doesn’t matter so much that the work is arduous or repetitive or that the workers don’t enjoy it or want their own children to have to do it.

    • Economic Irrationalists Unite! says:

      10:40am | 02/02/12

      I had never really thought of that, Super D, but it is definitely true. Everyone likes the ideas of factories and big machines and ‘making things’. Nobody seems to concerned to acually toil on the shop floor, though!

    • MD says:

      08:55am | 02/02/12

      People would buy more cars if they weren’t taxed and tariffed to hell and back, NZ has cheaper cars than us for christs sake.

      Reply

    • Leigh says:

      09:22am | 02/02/12

      Of course defence manufacturing in Adelaide and Williamstown makes sense; and it knocks in the head the claim that we need to prop up ailing and inefficient car making to create the expertise to maintain high tech knowledge. We already have the knowledge, and boring old cars – which low-paid workers in developing countries can produce just as well and much cheaper than we can – are a drain on Australian taxpayers and keep prices high.

      The most important employers in Australia are small business owners in manufacturing, selling and services. They provide far more work than car making, and they don’t have their noses in the tax trough. If anything, they are hindered by taxes and red tape imposed by the robber barons posing as politicians.

      One of the reasons for the ‘threat’ to the car industry which we are all in a flap about now is that export markets have flopped; and, why would anyone want to import from Australia or America vehicles when they can import them cheaper from developing countries? More subsidies from taxpayers takes money from other sectors, pumps up the prices, and makes Australian built cars even more expensive as exports.  Added to this, our car industry has ignored, for decades now, the types of cars Australians want.

      The whole outdated car industry in Australia digs itself a deeper hole every time it has to be propped up by taxpayers. It is finished! The sooner it goes for good, the better it will be for the Australian economy, which has been dominated by Keynesians and socialists for too long.

      Reply

    • Steve says:

      09:53am | 02/02/12

      The argument that car manufacturing needs to be kept alive because it can be switched over to turning out tanks and other military equipment in the event of war is just nonsense.  Tanks are far more complex and difficult to manufacture than in the 1930 -1950s.

      The author should have noticed that Western nations no longer have massive armies, and the last mass tank battle was (I think) Iraq 1991.  Where would we be fighting, and who, that would be allow using tanks and armoured vehicles in massive numbers?  You could not turn out the tanks quickly enough to fight in any foreseeable war, and what about training and unit cohesion?

      Australia’s geography has always lead to its defense based controlling its sea and air approaches.

      PS: don’t build the next generation of subs here, or buy conventional powered subs somewhere else.  Instead, buy U.S. Virginia class nukes - much better capacity, would be cheaper in the end, and its a proven model.

      Reply

    • Sandra says:

      10:22am | 02/02/12

      I cannot let your PS pass. If you really think the US is going to sell us the same spec military equipment that thye use you must be dreaming. Using nuclear pwered subs would mean almost all maintenance would have be done off-shore until we could build suitable facilities and train crews. That is not smart for defence capability. I seriously doubt buying anything from the US is going to be quicker or cheaper (consider the Joint Strike Fighter project). Apart from all that the US have very significant industry protection laws in place - free trade out not in. Look up the Jones Act as an example.

    • Steve says:

      11:08am | 02/02/12

      Sandra
      Submarines and warships are so expensive partly because the production runs are short and the development costs have to spread across small numbers.  Our buying of US subs would make the US’ own subs cheaper.  The US would sell us the same capacity subs - we are very useful and trusted allies, with good security services. 

      The lead times to getting the Virginia class subs means that Australia would have a minimum of 10 years - more likely 15 years - to cross-train with the US Navy and to build the bases.  And I think the US would refuel and eventually decommission the subs for us - its more efficient use of the facilities.

      The jSF is still a development project whereas the Virginia class subs have been operational since 2003, and they are now launching Block 2 subs…big difference in terms of project risk.  The subs are costing the US government about $1.8B a piece. 

      Not sure why free trade policy stops US exports?  The US actually wants exports…

    • Leigh says:

      09:54am | 02/02/12

      Just noted: The SA Government, huffing and puffing to ‘save’ GMH with taxpayer funds, did not, apparently feel the same obligation for a small manufacture of buses in SA. The have decided to import from Malaysia school buses which the local company could have made here in Adelaide. The result - 17 SA workers have been put off.

      They are not even consistent!

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      10:13am | 02/02/12

      ‘We cannot simply invent a manufacturing sector when we find that we have a strategic imperative to have one. It’s why there is some very good strategic sense not just pork barrelling for Adelaide and Williamstown in making our own submarines and our own frigates.’

      A friend of mine who works in a defence industry once said to me ‘we only make the practice ammunition here , if we want the real stuff we buy it from the US’.  He was a senior production manager !

      Reply

    • Jeremy says:

      10:33am | 02/02/12

      Subsidizing car manufacture would be a horrible idea, why sustain something at tax payer expense that is inefficient and distorts the global market? and to say we should manufacture because it made China richer? Um, we are far richer than China and they will need to re-balance from an export driven economy if they want to maintain their wealth growth. What we need to do is play too our strengths in other industries, like our world class pharmaceuticals industry. Australia can do very well if we focus on creating the right graduates to foster growth in the future, and not by pumping wasteful money into specific sectors to save a few unproductive jobs.

      Reply

    • Jeremy says:

      10:33am | 02/02/12

      Subsidizing car manufacture would be a horrible idea, why sustain something at tax payer expense that is inefficient and distorts the global market? and to say we should manufacture because it made China richer? Um, we are far richer than China and they will need to re-balance from an export driven economy if they want to maintain their wealth growth. What we need to do is play too our strengths in other industries, like our world class pharmaceuticals industry. Australia can do very well if we focus on creating the right graduates to foster growth in the future, and not by pumping wasteful money into specific sectors to save a few unproductive jobs.

      Reply

    • Perdix says:

      11:50am | 02/02/12

      its a bit hypocritical to say that we need to keep car manufacturing in Australia when we have driven other manufacturer off shore! There is no valid national strategic argument for keeping car manufacturing in Australia, there is probably a greater national strategic argument for keeping clothing manufacturers going in Australia…..oops, they have already all gone to China, Cambodia, Indonesia etc etc.  The last car manufacturer in NZ closed up shop many years ago, to be replaced with 2nd hand imports from Japan. Seems to have worked just fine.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      06:04pm | 02/02/12

      Tax Mining Companies at the proper rate.
      That is step no.1.

      This may devalue our dollar, which might assist our exporters.
      That’s result no. 1

      Ask Kim Carr to go back to Detroit, and get some feel for the future design threads of Ford and GM and whether a new platform is to come from Opel, or Ford Europe.
      (The small wheelbase Buick is, in my bet, a future GMH platform.)

      If Toyota or Nissan or Diahatsu or Proton want assistance, tell them to get it from their parent companies.
      Sorry, but Capitalism and the products they produce is Culture, (culture and art is distinct) ... and always has been, and if Western Culture is important to us, as it should be, then we should be seeing Western technology and design on our Freudian roads.

      I mean, how many times do we actually see the efforts, the advances and the sacrifices of our own culture’s products on show ?

      Practically nothing.

      The way we get around is actually extremely important, culturally, psychologically and economically.
      The theories are complex, and I had made a private study of them from our own Department of Transport portfolios at the State Library maybe a year ago.
      Brisbane’s freeways were consulted to by an American Engineer in ‘68/69.
      Some adjustments were made by our local lads, yet the transport mode was identical : that good free-running roads with economical cars which were reliable and riverfreeways were the most efficient ways of moving people from A to B.

      The cars now are the problem.
      The best cars for long term reliability and longevity are made by GM and Ford.
      No doubt about it.
      Made from better metals, and good electronics.

      If we want to be the best people we can be, then why would we settle for 2nd rate appliances ... in any sphere ?

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      06:49pm | 02/02/12

      OK.
      I’ll admit it.
      I’m an expert on transportation, modes of travel and the internal combustion engine ... plus about 300 other things.

      Wanna get serious ?

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      07:25pm | 02/02/12

      I’m waiting for my chance to make my mark.
      Or did you think I am only swashbuckler ?

      Do you know how smart I am ?

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      08:09pm | 02/02/12

      Come on Zeta, let’s go.

      But know looking at folders, heh ?

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      08:45pm | 02/02/12

      Why, I’m heaps smart.

      Reply

    • Lurch says:

      10:50pm | 02/02/12

      Maybe you are stephen, but let me tell you this.
      If talking shit could make money, you would be a millionaire!

 
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