Yr right, yr only half right.
Unions are not the demons that can be blamed for the demise of the Australain car industry. look to the top of the organization, they will outsource to sierra leone and use slave if they can squeeze the margin a a little more. They cut R&D first of all then hack the heart out of the beast. Forget 'the Australian family sedan, globalization means we will all drive korean designed, thai built cars untill the chinese get their act together. Then we will be driving crappy chinese pastiches. We can only have a car industry here IF WE WANT IT. If you want a locally designed and developed car that meets our expectations and requirements, then buy one, many people do pay a little more for the optimized product. If you are happy with a Great wall ( or perish the thought a Mahindra) then you have cast your vote to kill local manufacturing capability regardless of verbalized position.
The rapacious globalized auto industry makes decisions based on more than local wages, otherwise Mercedes and VW would have disappeared many years ago. I would also dispute that these manufacturers regard their staff as 'unskilled labour'.
The plastic pickup/ ute tray liner was invented here in Aus by a guy who had to fight to get it accepted at all, and then had it ripped of by a globalized auto manufacturer despite careful and strategic business planning. At least he got a bit of the cherry on the way past. He also own a Mahindra as it happens.
We are fundamentally low volume high value manufactures who are flexible and innovative. We will never be competitive with Hyundai, and should not compare our industry(s) and market to those of the lowest common denominator.
We need more than just the will to do things, what we need here is a mature government that can accept that a local manufacturing industry has direct and indirect benefits for the country and is what keeps us from being by definition a 3rd world counrty. While our sycophantic defence forces for one will do almost anything to buy from our military partners(s?) spending many Billions just to be in the club, and then not invest locally, ignore, or worse ridicule, local products it is clear the cultural cringe is alive and well at the highest levels.
This is certainly not the case in the USA where local industry is PROUDLY supported, there are plenty of high value low volume manufacturers in the aviation industry in the USA where these industries are fostered by government and agencies, even if the imported (e.g. Australian ) products are superior.
All the will in the world is no use if when you have made your product there is no local support/customer base. in that instance why not move your company or manufacturing facility to where the market is? This has happened many times in our inglorious manufacturing history, and is doomed to happen again.
This is even worse under the current government who believe that manufacturing industry should be euthenased, we all need to take a pay cut, tighten our belts and wait for Gina Swineheart to dig up some more of the country, with highly paid unskilled union labour no doubt.
The whole thing is much more complicated of course, but charity begins at home, we should expect our elected representatives of all colours to respect the desire of the majority of Australians who really do want a local manufacuring industry, even though their buying habits do not accurately reflect this desire.
HD