I have taken my time to think before answering a Shadow Minister taunt/false claim to me above.
Yes I was a union official, and still love the movement.
I however never fitted in to any box, content to hold my own views and too not to turn my head to wrongs.
Maybe my clash, with an official of the Union that includes Car Makers was with one angry left wing nut.
But I never ever liked them.
BUT they did take a wage cut, in recent past, to keep car makeing in Australia.
And yes every government has spent our cash, keeping the car industry going!
It is just the tip of an iceberg, manufacturing is about to take its biggest ever hit.
IF Toyota leaves too
16%
That is the part of a cars cost wages takes up.
The heated blast of anti worker/union/Labor tripe from AM avoids at all costs a truth.
AUSTRALIA even without the cookie monster UNIONS and workers insisting on a living wage.
Can never beat the low wages these car makers pay in other country,s like south America.

Indi, business, both large and small, has in general done very well in Oz, large multinationals like GM were given generous incentives post WWII to set up and operate here. Australia has for a long time been seen as an attractive haven to foreign investors. These are undeniable facts.
I am a believer in "sustainability" which should be applied to all facets of human endeavor. I also believe in "social justice", giving a helping hand to all those that need and deserve it. I also believe where possible people should be "self reliant" as far as their ability allows. I support the rights of workers to organise for their collective good. I also believe all have a responsibility to act for the social good of society.
Government performs a most necessary function in society; in fact we could not do without it. The government’s regulatory function is vital, but in some circumstance it tends to over regulate and has become too invasive in our lives and stifling sustainability and self reliance. For my point of view big government is not a good thing, what is needed is balance between the need for government and the needs of the individual

Rechtub for sure SM maybe often tells us the answer is lower wages.
In this case rare but true some times they are right.
A coastal City sees tradesmen doing their own Laboring, because a ranting raving extremist union took action that priced members out of a job.
See? I still face the truth!
But are we aware of the impacts of low wages.
Do we understand a worker has only their time and skills to sell? to gain a living wage from.
Do we want a working poor an under class?
457 Visa, thrown around here like a rock, and in truth nothing more than uninformed.
We let 457 folk come in who have skills we do not have.
And who do work sometimes we do not want to do.
EG Pacific Islanders to pick the Northern Territory s fruit like Mango,s.
We live in confronting times Unions too need to be constantly looking for improvement, eg stop pricing membership out by large fees.
But if the Rechtubs ever get to see the anti average Australian worker wish imposed?
Hell on earth, truth has value.

Well, I have just read through the posts here and the message I get is
that you are all arguing on a "Business as Usual" basis.

Well, it won't be a business as usual environment.
We need to get rid of the 457 visas asap to force our people to do the
jobs and train up because as a matter of urgency it will take at least
five years to get the workforce we will need for the localised industry.
The problem is we may not have five years. I am afraid that it will
take that long to get our politician's brains reorientated to the new zero growth world.
I think that may have been what Peter Costello was on about.
If that is right we may well have to just cancel that debt.

It now looks like we will never have enough GDP surplus to pay off
our government debt and the public's debt will hang over us all.
Like you I have been seeing the hints handed out from different
sources about how tough it is going to be in coming times.
It is the lack of growth and if we do not act responsibly we will go
one worse and have contraction.

Don't worry about car factories, many more people are not going to be able to afford one.
Fuel costs are going to reach levels where your car will last a lifetime.

We will need to divert large funds to rebuild TAFE as we try to
overcome the lack of grass roots technical trades people.

Way back in the early 70s I had a mate with the perfect life.

He was a sparky, [radio operator] on Oz coastal shipping. He worked 3 months on 3 months off, on the ships, & spent the other half sailing around on his yacht, with his wife.

He would leave her & the yacht in a port near her family, or in a port his ship would visit regularly, & off to work he'd go.

It was in the old Mooloolaba yacht club one night they were crying into their beers. He reckoned he had lost his job. On queering him we found it was not immediate, but in the next few years.

You see the seaman's union had just got another ridiculously high extra in their award. He reckoned it was the last straw, & coastal shipping would be unviable, & disappear. We've done ourselves out of our jobs he reckoned. He was right, it was the last straw for Oz shipping.

He was a smart bloke, I wonder what he is doing now.

Can't you see that we are supposed to become the mean of other Asian nations and the rich get richer to employ and manage the poorer middle class; and we as others work for a bowl of rice each day and $14 a week. Then we will be able to manufacture as China, India and Asia our own clothes, cars and hardware products, and we will again have our service industry returned from those countries.