Here here Yabby, these unions, forever pushing for better wages and conditions just don't get it.

Super is a prime example, as the only reason government wants to increase it, is so they can shift the responsibility of retirement to the employer, as the trade off of wage increases, in leu of super is no longer the case.

Just increasing wages and conditions can no longer be justified just by increased prices.

Productivity must be the driving force.

If our costs don't come down, we WILL pay for it, big time.

This ford closure has the potential to become a cancer within the entire manufacturing industry, and all we can do is throw money at it and watch it fail.

Just wait until coal mining ceases to be profitable, could happen within a year or two, we will then have real issues to be concerned with, especially if the boats are not stopped.

Yep rehctub, it is an interesting comparison, with Oz government funded benefits.

The reason the big 3 US auto makers went broke was welfare. They had given their employees not only great working conditions & pay, but retirement benefits way beyond the norm. Their workers had health care for life, through to death, a very expensively welfare cost.

This was fine while they competed against only each other.

First imports from companies without these costs started to hurt them, then those manufacturers set up to manufacture in the US, but did not give the same conditions, & did not have a huge retired ex workforce receiving those benefits.

We have done something similar in our mining industry. A mate of mine, a personnel [in the old terminology] manager with a large miner once told me that people deserved the huge wages to live in such sh*thouse places.

He now admits their mistake. Giving in to all union demands, no matter how frivolous, when the cash was rolling in. Now they find people will work in much worse places, in Africa & South America for much less money, & their labour costs are much too high.

Add a government that thinks their a golden egg laying goose, & greenies & crazy regulations, & we are about to see our last profitable industry shrivel on the vine.

Might be a good idea to keep the car industry. In the near future we just might need the foreign exchange saved on imported cars to help buy food, & they just might be the last employer, apart from government, left in the country.

We could once again build a large car in Oz, but it would need to be made from moulded carbon fibre.
We lead the world in moulded carbon fibre production, and it's a lead that could sew up a very large global market and economies of scale, that would more than turbo-charge local high tech manufacture.
Those same economies of scale would allow a locally invented NG powered ceramic fuel cell, to replace conventional combustion engines.
There are no moving parts to wear out in the fuel cell.
And, the exhaust is mostly water vapour.
A 72% energy coefficient, would make this particular combination the most economical energy efficient vehicle in the world!
With the best acceleration rate and the lowest centre of gravity; and, not subject to the usual corrosion of steel bodied vehicles.
Some extra capacity could be installed if towing were contemplated, and power piped into the towed vehicle?
Which could have electric regenerative motors added to all wheels.
This way the tow vehicle would more or less simply guide/steer the towed vehicle(s), and not be held up by hills or muddy roads!
Ditto B doubles and road trains!
Moreover, with a reasonable inboard power source, this combination could stop and camp virtually anywhere, with the pristine water produced by the fuel cell exhaust, adding to the drinking water availability.
The only limitations, inboard grey/black water tanks storage capacity!
Also, the water cooled ceramic fuel cell would provide all the (free) hot water needed!
Very rapid rail would be possible, with inboard ceramic cells and CNG, without the extremely expensive wiring roll-out, that literally wastes around 50% of the power supply, virtue of transmission line losses.
Ditto light rail, mono rail, trams, trolley buses, and other more conventional transport options!
Rhrosty.

Rehctub, a lot of the coal mines are already losing money. That is why Rio for instance, has put a number of its coal mines on the market. More Americans are using their cheap gas, so they are selling surplus coal into our markets, depressing prices. Now gold has dropped to little more than the cost of production and iron ore will drop, once all these extra mines come on stream. Our current account is still running at a monthly deficit, so we are just borrowing more money to stay afloat.

The Ford workers will be paid up to two years wages as termination payments, forced on them by the unions. With cushy deals like that expected, why would anyone invest in Australian manufacturing

Chris,
I’m not surprised someone from the IPA did not identify which industries would thrive without government intervention. The whole point, from their perspective, is that no single individual or government bureaucrat can know what will work and what won’t. Competition and innovation will give us answers we can’t even imagine.

Hasbeen,
I don’t disagree that some people are buying smaller cars because of fuel costs, but unless you want to pay subsidies for fuel as well as cars, then that’s a rational choice. If money and fuel costs were no object, I’d prefer to drive a Porsche; but I don’t

Ford? Ask any Ford dealer. Ford consistently refused to take any notice of customer feedback from dealers. Ford relied on advertising spin to sell cars it wanted to make (better profit) and didn't care squat about word-of-mouth advertising.

We bought Falcons for years as the home shopping trolley and transport for the juniour sports players. But eventually a Toyota replaced the Falcon with its heavy doors, poor seats, over-large blind spot in the front R quarter obscuring the driver's view (the supporting pillar got larger to support the idiotic low sweep of the windscreen from the Taurus), hump under the back seat that made the fifth seating position agony even for pre-adolescents and noisy differential.

Arrogant, uncaring Ford management had to fight hard and long to lose the customers loyal to that straight six and reasonable drive train. Ford shareholders need to take some credit too for continually allowing massive salary packages and bonuses for rather average CEOs and senior managers. Quite obviously top $$ doesn't ensure top quslity management. But then the big money and benefits paid to Australia's federal politicians proves that too.