Australian built car industry finally ceases 20th Oct'17

[smoooth2]

A sad day for Australian manufacturing industry.

Friday 20th Oct'17 

GM Holden shuts down their Elizabeth assembly plant in South Australia. Forever.

Last week Toyota closed in Melb.

Last year Ford closed in Melb.

It's the end of an era that spanned 65+ years of car manufacturing in Oz. All Aussie expats grew up in an era of Holden v Ford rivalry, when the two makes dominated Australian car sales.

All new car sales in Oz will now be fully imported vehicles.

Pictured is the absolute final production car manufactured in Oz. A Holden Commodore V8

[aparasher]

Yup. It's a shame, but can not be avoided considering the cost of production in Australia and no help from government.

[Tassie]

The successive list of political traitors, over the last 30 years or so, infesting the Australian Parliament have finally got what they wanted.  Export all Australian manufacturing. Like Elvis has left the building, common sense by our politicians went with him.

[smoooth2]

I'm not a big fan of blaming Government for the collapse of the Oz car manufacturing industry.

Oz Govt has poured billions into this ailing industry for decades. Finally some pollies had the balls to say enough is enough. No more hand outs.

Result .... the decision makers in these companies said "Damn, no more free money. Better shut the shop now."

Why did the industry collapse ? In Feb'17 a Melbourne newspaper wrote a beaut story answering this very question.

If you're even vaguely interested, I can recommend a 10 minute read of this story. You'll be so much better informed.

Google .... Herald Sun why australian car manufacturing died .... you'll find the Feb'17 story easy.

It's a good read, and Thailand gets a very big mention also.

[Tassie]

I am a realist  when it comes to the closure of our industries in Australia. Australia was a self sufficient nation for most of its history,  Then the Government dropped tariffs on imports and the trickle turned into a flood. I am also not a fan of truth deniers who really fail to understand the deep rooted causes that were deliberately used to transfer our jobs to overseas destinations.
How could Australians compete on the worldwide labour market when our labourers at the time were getting 17 dollars and hour and our competitors were getting 2 dollars a day?  I have read all the Government arguments and why the car industry closed but what about all the other industries (100's) that have closed since 1975? The list is staggering and bears mentioning. 
 Canada, USA, UK, NZ also suffered the same fate.
When the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was created the flood gates opened and  our industries unable to cope with the flow in of cheap goods from overseas closed and put many Australians on the unemployment list.

[aparasher]

I am not an economist, but you gotta think, how come manufacturing is still alive in other countries like Germany, Japan and US of A. If managed properly and fat trimmed off from many other industries like housing and mining, this industry could have grown. The issue is that most of these companies belong to either Americans or Japanese who would prefer to have profits rolled into their coffers. There is no national plan to sustain manufacturing and something to support lower middle class. These pollies got fat surviving on donations from mining when they could have made fortune for this nation using profits from that industry. But, they chose to ignore it and sacrifice others for their sake. Now same is going on for housing. Prices are through the roof and normal people can not buy houses. What will happen when this bubble bursts? Nobody is taking actions for bettermentment of the country. Everyone is trying to secure their own seat. Normal politics I guess.

I am not associated with manufacturing, but it hurts when you see a sea of red from common people's blood on a nation with gold and green as the symbol. I know that country needs to prepare for next wave and change industries, but there needs to be a plan for that. Who is working on that?

Maybe I should stop drinking my wine now... LOL...

[fishy]

I should not have opened this link....!! All I can do now is drink angry Leo!!!.. The Australian Government is f>>>>d with the decisions they have made... It is long term stuff up not just the demise of Holden in Australia.. I was made REDUNDANT through people who gained a 457 Visa legally as the Aus government handed them out to foreign workers to come to Aus and work as the country had problems filling positions in the workforce.. I have paid my Tax's and continue to do so even though Thailand is my chosen home now... I am not someone who can hold a good argument until I walk away and think what I should have said.  The people I know first hand who held 457 Visa's and gained employment in Aus paid NO Tax's as they where employed by foreign companies, pay goes into a foreign account.. My Co-workers which where Aus Nationals from a diverse range of country's and paid Tax's also lost their employment and fair enough they are getting the Unemployment benefit... I'm not trying to divulge from the original Topic why Holden is closing doors but the Government over the years must hold responsibility also. Selling government assets and privatising them is a joke.. Telstra was built through Taxpayer money and the public had to buy shares in the company from the Government if they wanted to invest in the float... something they had already paid for in their Tax's!!  I wont get started on the Electricity.... So the Government can hand out dollars for Insulation or whatever to stimulate the economy but the closure of Holden will effect many many people.....AND Australia

[Tassie]

Fishy, you are spot on.
The industrial sector of the US is also in chaos like Australia as the closure of and lose of so many manufacturing jobs has been deliberately created.  With regard to America, according to the 2017 data there are 43 million Americans receiving food stamps.  There are also about 1.56 million people identified as chronically homeless in the USA.  Hardly a record to be proud of especially as GAAT is a major factor in helping to destroy Americas industrial base and was pushed and promoted by out of control politicians.
Australian politicians should bow their collective heads in shame for the sell out of our industrial base. There would have never been the need to subsidise the Australian motor industry if the Australian Government hadn't rushed into he arms of the Globalist GAAT culture.

[Tassie]

Another example of Australian Government  mismanagement was the 25 year lpg gas contract with China.  We own the gas rigs, the storage facilities etc. and sell the gas to China, delivered, at 2 cents per litre, yes 2 cents per litre.  Australians currently pay 86 cents per lire at the pump. The insanity and madness is endemic in the GAAT inspired Australian Parliament.

[fishy]

99 year lease on Port of Darwin sold to China and a few acres of dirt down the road called Cubbie Station sold to China... Sold and Approved by the government... and we sit back and laugh at how bizarre Government is here!! ("bizarre" for want of a word that would not upset the locals here!). I'm thinking next election of running for it and setting up the "Burriram Party" and joining hands with Pauline Hanson... Donations appreciated...?   

[Tassie]

Hey Fishy, do you mind me tagging along?
Regards

[nanglong218]

Tassie, you know me well, let me tell everyone my first thoughts on Australia, Melbourne in particular, when I first arrived in 2006.  As a truckie in UK/EU I was appalled by the standard of pollution control in old Yankee trucks. Black smoke everywhere.   I passed my test in an old bonneted Mack with Road Ranger box and no power assisted clutch.  This was 2006, I was used to driving Volvo/Scania/MAN etc,,  fully aerodynamic, close coupled to the semi-trailer for maximum fuel efficiency.  Australia was 30 years behind, USA still is.  Has Kenworth gone?
The relevance of this is that producers must pay attention to their market which has shifted from gas guzzlers with big interiors to urban friendly, easy parking, small energy efficient runabouts.  Tradies with heavy trailers need powerful utes, some want status symbol SUVs.  Horses for courses.  But Australia only produced big 6 cylinder stuff.
I was shocked by the fuel consumption of the cars I viewed on the car lots.  12 or 13 litres per 100k was the norm, no diesels (now discredited I know) were available.  My last UK car, SEAT 1.9 diesel, did 6 litres per 100k.
The big decisions were probably made in foreign places, they'll throw Australia some R&D bones. But if you cannot respond to the shifting market you are doomed.

[nanglong218]

The sale of utilities, gas electric water, was a ploy of the Reagan/Thatcher years. It was sold to us dummies as a good thing, buy shares make money.   In the UK now foreigners own it all, they choose the price, the regulators are weak.
Australia too, selling itself by the acre/hectare/rai  whatever.  Shady deals in the backroom.
Who is paying the piper here?    Globalisation is getting dumped across the world, nationalism on the rise, hopefully peacefully.  Trade is great when others produce better things, but your homeland and its services??
Yorkshire phrase...."Take care of thee and thine"

[fishy]

A man named Tom Nicholson posted on his Facebook account the sports car that he had just bought and how a man approached and told him that the money used to buy this car could've fed thousands of less fortunate people. His response to this man made him famous on the internet.

 
READ his story as stated on Facebook below:

A guy looked at my Corvette the other day and said, "I wonder how many people could have been fed for the money that sports car cost.?
I replied I am not sure, but it fed a lot of families in Bowling Green, Kentucky who built it, it fed the people who make the tires, it fed the people who made the components that went into it, it fed the people in the copper mine who mined the copper for the wires, it fed people in Decatur, IL. at Caterpillar who make the trucks that haul the copper ore. It fed the trucking people who hauled it from the plant to the dealer and fed the people working at the dealership and their families.
BUT,... I have to admit, I guess I really don't know how many people it fed.
That is the difference between capitalism and welfare mentality.
When you buy something, you put money in people's pockets, and give them dignity for their skills.
When you give someone something for nothing, you rob them of their dignity and self worth.