Quote:
Originally Posted by Cav
A good analysis ...
Combined, all three brands have lost more than $1.5 billion on their local manufacturing operations over the past decade, despite receiving more than twice that in taxpayer funding over the same period.
So, who’s to blame for this predicament?
Federal Governments who created low import tariffs and signed Free Trade Agreements that gave cheap foreign cars the upper hand?
The unions that demanded better wages and conditions for their workers?
Or the bosses at the international headquarters of the car companies who treated Australian governments like a cash machine?
The truth is all of these factors share at least some responsibility for the industry’s demise, along, sadly, with the buying public and fleet operators who swapped patriotism for a broader choice of more affordable, more desirable, and more suitable imported cars.
Successive governments from both sides of politics created the economic environment that Australia now finds itself in: a nation with high wages, low import tariffs and a strong currency.
These three factors make it impossible to profitably export cars, especially when you’re surrounded by Asia-Pacific countries that don’t need Australian-made vehicles because they’re making their own — for one-quarter of the labour cost.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/why-a...b40d8d0f0711c7
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Most of the big losses incurred were plant write downs, the rest of the losses only prove that all the money was expended here and not hived off to the USA.
The money stayed here, now there’s a 30 billion a year funnel out of Australia.