Originally Posted by
PiperCameron
As with most media news stories there are always two sides - the one the public gets to see and the one they don't. As someone closely involved in the car industry demise, all I'll say here is that the (government-assisted) selling off of the Melbourne plastics manufacturing industry and the resulting loss of thousands of allied jobs to overseas interests a decade or so before left the car makers with little choice. There were good reasons for GMH/Ford/Toyota to stay here if they could - which is why they are still around, even as shells of their old selves - but even local companies have to be competitive on the world stage.
Maybe it has very little to do with any ANU Faculty of Economics or any other large consulting firm's reports, but government meddling (both state and federal) in economic and industry decisions they don't understand is part of life in this country. The scary part is that our aviation industry gets treated no differently.
Or would it have been a case, partly, that the Australian manufacturers could nod would not sell the cars that Australians wanted at the prices they wanted to pay ?