It never ends

[wrongwaynorris]

Dowling is either horrendously naive , stupid , ignorant ( I believe he is all three ) but I suspect his primary motivating factor behind this headline is that his rabid deep seeded pathalogical hatred Ford simply knows no bounds whatsoever .
I eagerly await his headline in 2017 /18 when as Ford sell Thailand sourced Falcon replacements for circa $25,000.00 Holden announce they too are pulling out of producing cars in Australia . Anyone who believes Holden will continue to produce cars in Australia post 2020 I have a nice bridge and Opera House I'd like to sell you .

I have sat back bemused , that through all last week NO ONE ( not politicians , reporters , pundits , so called " industry experts " , economic analysts et al et al ) actually analysed why we have reached this point . Following is a piece I was asked to write .

I for one would certainly be more than happy to pay $ 260.00 per year ad infinitum to keep automotive manufacturing jobs in this country , after all my kids will be looking for jobs in Parramatta and Geelong not Seoul or Tianjin .

" Why are we where we are now ? or How I learned to stop worrying and love the subsidy .

So how did we reach the momentous announcement Ford were forced to make this week ? Believe it or not this all started back in 1972 when the dye was cast by the then inept Whitlam governments monumentally stupid decision to radically wind back tariff protection . In the deft stroke of a pen Whitlam and his cohorts swept away what John McEwan had worked so hard to institutionalise in the Australian economy , tariff protection for Australian manufacturing . In 1973 less than a year after taking power and justifiably having spent decades in the political wilderness of cluelessness and ineptitude , Whitlam and his equally moribund trade minister Jim Cairns , without any submissions to treasury cut tariffs by a whopping 25% overnight with the net result that one year later we had a 30% increase in imports and a $1.5 Billion increase in our trading accounts and for the first time in the countries history a trade deficit ( To put things into perspective that’s $ 1.5 Billion in 1974 when a house in Sydney cost less than $ 25,000.00 , and an XB Falcon cost about $ 3,500.00 ) They cited a report from a taskforce chaired by Tariff Board chairman Alf Rattigan, set up in secret three weeks earlier, to look at ways of stimulating imports to relieve shortages of supplies and restrain prices. It was a long-term answer to a short-term problem. Yet the report was not submitted to cabinet, the issue was brought on without notice, and ministers had little or no opportunity to seek advice. In 1972-73, Australia recorded its last current account surplus. A year later, after the tariff cuts, import volumes jumped by a third, and the current account deficit was here to stay. Manufacturing lost 138,000 jobs in two years ( we are talking about the loss of 1200 jobs here and now with a population of 22,000,000 vs 138,000 with a population then of only 13,000,000 ), and high unemployment became entrenched. The tariff cuts were only one factor in all this, but they symbolised the defects in Whitlam's "crash through or crash" style of decision-making.
So here started the foundation every subsequent government has had to deal with ever since .
There is currently , and has been in the last decade much gnashing of teeth by about 75% of the great unwashed populace in regards to the subsidies paid to Australian manufacturers , especially Car makers . Obviously , any sense of parochialism or national pride has been effortlessly swept away in the greed fuelled generations since the baby boomers and that any sentimental attachment to Australian made cars is a relic of the distant path . In the last decade Ford have received $ 1.1 billion and Holden $ 1.9 Billion ( I’ll leave Toyota out as they are relative latecomers and Mitsubishi as they have long since departed ) . To put it into context however , including ALL taxpayer funded subsidies paid to ALL car manufacturers in the last decade , if amortised across our population of 22,000,000 it amounts to less than $ 18.00 per person , man , woman and child . So it has cost us the taxpayers the princely sum of $ 1.80 per year each to prevent the collapse of plants such as Elizabeth , Fishermans Bend , Altona , Geelong and Broadmeadows as noted by Kim Carr . The champions of “ FREE “ trade who opine that subsidies should be removed at all costs , invariably have NO answer to the systematic deindustrialisation and unemployment that follows such short sighted narrow minded blinkered policies . It follows that these “ FREE TRADERS “ say anything that can not be produced efficiently locally should be imported .
Imports , in this case , of SUBSIDISED cars from overseas .
I wonder how those of you so vehemently opposed to subsidies will feel when all your subsidies , YES YOUR subsidies are also stopped dead . You know subsidies like your child care , your private and public health insurance , your private schools , your universities , your accountant , your first home , your nursing home , your ABC , your Salary et al et al .
I am not in any way shape or form defending every decision made by Australian car manufacturers , but in an industry protected by tariff barriers since its effective inception in 1948 , up until 1973 little was done by the manufacturers to improve the quality of the local product because effectively they did not need to , as essentially they were only catering to a local market largely precluded from buying imported products due to their artificially tariff elevated price . Governments are not entirely blameless either in that along with subsidies should have gone performance clauses guaranteeing constant product improvements .
Manufacturing provides stable wages and working conditions across a range of industry sectors and generally speaking , careers in manufacturing are long term with many Ford and Holden workers working in the “ same “ job / place for 30 to 40 years . But when deindustrialisation thins out manufacturing and downsizing occurs the following problems emerge .
1 . How do you retrain and redploy workers aged 40 to 55 to be productive contributors to society and give them a sense of self worth . Ageism is already rife in Australian employment markets .
2 . The intendant retraining costs will fall to governments ( read taxpayers ) with NO guarantee of employability regardless of how successful the retraining is .
3 . What labour intensive industries will replace heavy industry in Geelong , Broadmeadows , Elizabeth , Fishermans Bend and Altona ?
4 . It is criminal to squander the considerable investements in both capital and skills accumulated over decades .
Our current federal Labour government is so monumentally and overwhelmingly bereft of ideas or even the most basic clues of a market economy as was their predecessor Labour colleagues from Whitlam and Cairns to Button with the admirably notable exception of Kim Carr .
Maybe they should look to the Chinese , Americans and Europeans who value manufacturing and PROTECT it via subsidies to a far greater extent than we ever did in this country . Case in point Germany , with , like us a first world labour rate subsidise their car industry to the tune of US$ 95.00 per person per capita , a far cry from our $ 1.80 , America ,again , with a first world labour rate subsidises its car industry to the tune of $ 260.00 per person per capita . Both the Germans and the Americans are NOT stupid , they realise their car manufacturing sector is strategically essential to their overall economic wellbeing and future stability .
Australia has first rate engineers ( the FG platform is a far better rear drive platform than the current Mustang and the Barra engine is after BMW the finest production inline 6 in the world ) and Ford recognise this fact leaving Australia as a technology centre for world excellence continuing to employ 1600 people beyond 2016 .
Sadly however Australia is let down by second rate unions , third rate management and a fourth rate government made up largely of ex second rate unionists ( in bed with the second rate unions too ) .
It is beyond gauling , in the extreme to hear this countries MOST MONUMENTALLY INEPT , OUT OF TOUCH , CLUELESS and , by such a massive margin , WORST ever prime minister leading a party purportedly with the “ WORKERS “ Interests at heart babbling platitudes to the masses in Geelong this week and having the temerity , the sheer audacity to cast aspersions at Ford who have copped massive losses for many years now due to her side of politics accumulatively immesurable failures and somehow attempt to shift blame onto them .
Ford have given three years notice , THREE YEARS , NOT the overnight cessation of tariffs Whitlam and Cairns FORCED on an unsuspecting country and workforce by stealth , by even lying to and hiding from their own party their decision to axe tariffs IMMEDIATELY to the tune of 25% . Buttons subsequent tinkering around the edges without any true understanding of the industry or what the hell he was doing , and now this final blow on her watch .
I have absolutely NO doubt whatsoever that Ford WILL do the right thing by all their unfortunate employees who will ultimately lose their jobs in 2016 . Alan Mullaly is a highly ethical man who has turned Ford around and rebuilt it without ANY government funded bail out packages from the US taxpayer and the winds of change he has breathed throughout Ford worldwide will ensure this . The blood of the loss of these jobs is NOT on Fords hands in any way shape or form whatsoever . "

[ryeman]

I'm old enough to know all about the rubbish the transnationals were able to feed us as a result of the much loved (?) tariff barriers, and at prices the average joe could never afford for a new car. With their phasing out, the locals could hide no more.
The FG was finally a world class car but too late.

[Bossxr8]

The tariff reductions did ensure our cars ended up becoming world class, but it just went too far, and ensured that they could no longer keep up with technology when the tariffs became basically nothing, and they were left at the mercy of cheap imports stealing all their sales.

Why tariffs weren't reviewed and frozen or increased 10 years ago when Falcon and Magna sales started to tank, and Commodore too, is just a massive screw up.

[Road_Warrior]

Rather than create a level playing field, the tariff reduction created a playing field that is substantially lop-sided, towards imports. This is a hallmark of the "free trade taliban" policymakers that come up with government policy. However the local car makers can't just sit around and ignore market trends, this is what has left the Falcon and Commodore behind just as much as tariff issues and so forth.