SR,

Assuming that you have no issue with what I have said WRT RA, I will address you last post:

1 - Even before the 2008 GFC and the Aus $ surge, the local car industry was far from viable and needed substantial tariff protection and subsidies to survive. All of the costs passed onto tax payers in taxes and substantially more expensive cars and trucks.

2 - Nearly all the damage occurred under the Labor government such that in 2014 the car industry was dead on its feet so the blame is almost entirely labor's.

3 - Enabling buying cheaper parts from China would have enabled car production to be cheaper and more competitive, so why on earth not?

You obviously don't know much about manufacturing or the car industry SR. Remember The Button plan, all Labor & the start of the rot.

Then add cheap RORO shipping, & the rise of the small hatch & big utes & 4x4 wagons, & the market became too fractured for us to compete with a shrinking market for full size cars.

It takes as many components to produce a small hatch, just a bit less tin alloy & cloth as a real car, so damn near as costly to build, but must be sold for half the price. This is why Mitsubishi, Toyota, Ford & Holden all stuck with full size cars, & paid the price.

Then add paying process workers huge wages, much more than they can earn the company, & they had to go down the tube, just like wind mills & solar panels, if the poor fool tax payer stops subsidising them.

A real pity actually, those last Holdens were the equal of anything produced anywhere, just couldn't command the premium fools pay for German cars.

Every country in the world that builds cars subsidises it's car industry, just like we continue to subsidise the fossil fuel industry by around $29billion per year. Despite trying to hang the blame on past Labor governments it was Hockey and Abbott who intentionally shut down and drove manufacturing out of the country.

Locally manufactured car sales fell primarily because consumers simply wanted something else and as cheaply as possible.

It makes no economic (or environmental) sense to go back to building internal combustion powered vehicles. The trend globally is heavily and irreversibly slanted toward electric vehicles. It would be like starting to make VHS videocassette players again.

The taxes on electric vehicles are made deliberately high to keep sales low simply because electric cars don't pay fuel tax and cost the government revenue.

We have a perfect opportunity to start building electric cars (we already manufacture and export charging stations) but the government is too cowardly to stand up to their corporate financial sponsors. Maybe they would consider making coal-powered cars to keep their IPA handlers happy?

Enabling buying cheaper parts from China
Shadow Minister,
Here you go again, why ? Make them here for crying out loud ! Just get rid of the insane compliance costs & salaries. They're of no benefit to anyone except some hangers-on !

I see RA is under pressure to give Raelene Castle the flick for her gross incompetence.

Rache,

While most countries give tax breaks, no one has given vast dobs of cash anywhere near the same quantity as the car manufacturers in Aus got proportional to their size.

Building electric cars in Aus would be a moronic mistake, Chargers are relatively low tech which is quite the opposite of cars. There is no market, and the high cost of Aus labor would kill any attempt at export.

Dear Shadow Minister,

You keep trotting out this bit of rubbish; "the high cost of Aus labor would kill any attempt at export"

The Germans have a very strong export market and they pay their workers 50% more than the Americans and certainly more than what Australians were getting.

The reason is their European approach to industrial relations where workers representatives sit on the boards rather than our union hating American version we have allowed to flourish here.

Sweden has a flourishing car and truck industry. When SAAB started to falter it pivoted to manufacturing fighter components.

They are moving toward electric car manufacture in the near future.

There are plenty of European countries with significant motor vehicle industries. You were just flying another of your furphies. Time to stop.