Judy
I don't know much you've kept up with the debate but basically it was time the car industry went. This business about whether the government should pay to keep jobs in Aus has been kicked around endlessly over the years, and always the answer is that we get more jobs if the subsidies end. Admittedly there will be short term losers, but overall resources that would have gone into loss making enterprises like the car industry will be freed up for more productive use elsewhere in the economy. Better economy. More jobs.

One of the key points in the current debate is that the community seems to have come to a resigned acceptance of this argument (although there are a few diehards) and that the car industry should go. Its a shame but we never had a comparative advantage in that 20th century industry. It was a 50s thing started by Menzies (one of the conservatives you so despise). The debate has moved on.

Judy, it's not just quite grossly over-rewarded Tories, who think within a fixed or very limited circle of Ideas, but most politicians, I believe, whose main game is to win reelection, occupy the treasury benches, duck shove responsibility, blame shift, and steal ideas and kudos and shout down, belittle the other side?
Have I missed anything? And is not all the above common to most corporate psychopaths?
Thinking within a limited or tiny circle of very limited ideas, always limits the questions, and when the questions are limited, so also are the answers or available options!
Thus we see duck shovers, mouthing monosyllabic mantras, like the govt has no business in business, when in fact, it would be far more accurate and appropriate to say, the incompetent have no business in business!
Rhrosty.

The entire problem is politicians, with very short sighted tunnel vision and no ideas!
The car industry, could be fixed in a fortnight, just by reallocating money we currently waste on welfare for the rich, around 26 billion per?
And using just a portion of those funds, create an employee controlled co-op.
Thus we'd retain the skills and skilled workers, who could then be tasked with building right hand drive electric vehicles, we could export to niche markets in Asia.
Five vehicles could share a common chassis and drive systems, a saloon, a ute, a coupe, a hard top convertible and a station wagon?
Given we invented it, the power plant could be a much lighter compressed gas powered ceramic fuel cell, which even at a cost of five grand per unit, is vastly less than a half a ton of lithium ion batteries, or a complete conventional engine.
Moreover, the exhaust product is mostly water vapor and the energy coefficient is up to 80%, which is at least four times better than some fossil fueled vehicles, meaning economy and range is four or more times better.
And there's no power train to wear out and little or no maintenance with an electric vehicle.
The only current problem is range and or recharging; whereas, an NG/methane powered variant has no such problems. And if we smart, we will always have methane and or, solar created hydrogen!?
A couple of Aussie (CSIRO) invented high capacity capacitors would suffice to store returned energy, via regenerative braking and so on, and indeed, massively increase the already impressive electric vehicle torque.
A co-op, could be run much leaner than a vastly over leveraged corporation, carrying hugely over rewarded drones and non performing dividend collectors? There'd be no strikes or wages blowouts and no carried drones in a co-op!
Meaning, with already existing automation, and the new economies of scale we'd gain by supplying Asian and other nearby markets, we could compete for market share, with anyone!
The debate has moved on indeed! Bah humbug!
Rhrosty

As soon as I hear anyone describing the liberals as the Tories, then it is a sure bet that the person is disconnected from reality and hails from the extreme left of politics. Judy Crozier is exactly that, and in her universe all Labor's stuff ups are simply misrepresentations, union corruption is a figment of our imagination, and the coalition's plans are to return our children to the work houses.

Judy teaches creative writing and delights us all with fantasy articles such as "How Rudd’s pink batts saved Australia."

Need I say more?

Great article. And timely too. I've been wondering about this myself. In Australia we no longer seem to have many articulate voices on either side of politics. The left of centre have been silent or blustering for quite a while.

What concerns me is the number of otherwise reasonable people who take on board the most outrageous statements not based on any facts at all. The wages 'blow-out' being one of them and the demonizing of unions. It is quite bizarre. Unions are needed now more than ever.

There are private companies who make their money providing services paid for by the tax payer and/or subsidized by the tax payers. If only a fraction of how these companies squeeze their workers and double dip in the tax money pot were known, people wouldn't be so enamored about the 'efficiency' of private enterprise.

To view the world via the left/right paradigm is very naïve. Bankers run West because they create all the new money for our Govts to function and you to buy a house or car. Nothing will change unless we move back to Govt banks.http://cecaust.com.au/

Tony Abbott now tells us that the Govt Debt is $667 billion or more than twice Labor's numbers. This is over $60,000 debt for every working person or and extra $120,000 added to every family's mortgage. Now OS Central banks created most of this money from nothing. Why don't we create our own credit via Govt banks?

Note Israel has just closed all 103 embassies world wide and allotted an extra $3 billion for war.Many believe that they are preparing to attack Iran. This will be a disaster for all of us.