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.

I had a warranty issue a couple of years ago on a Holden with just 35,000kms.
The local Kia dealer who sold the car new and still sell Holden parts basically told me not to even bother trying to make a claim...

I did mention that I wouldn't ever buy another Holden, which got me a sympathetic smile.
(I didn't buy this one; I inherited it from my father who ignored my advice to buy a Toyota or a Hyundai.)

Yep, it'd be messy! As an interesting aside, an entirely new industry developed out of COVID - the third-party world-wide sale and distribution of spare parts for cars, industrial equipment, aircraft, electronics, you name it. It seems shortages during COVID resulted in enterprising individuals skilled in logistics literally cold-calling distribution warehouses across the globe and offering to sell whatever they had sitting on their shelves to desperate customers in other countries (like Australia). To avoid serious scrutiny it's often called the "obsolete parts market" (even if the parts aren't really obsolete).

Nobody buys manufacturer-supplied parts direct from the manufacturer any more (well, at least you don't have to if you don't want to). Buyer beware.

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 ?

Partly. Why "Buy Australian" when you can buy cheaper from overseas?? :ugh: