Nothing symbolises the demise of our manufacturing sector more than the closure of Holden. (Gerard Rennick)

Once we were warriors.

In 1979 whilst driving an Australian made Torana A9X, Peter Brock drove what many regard as the greatest lap ever driven at Bathurst.

On his last lap he overtook a number of cars to set a new lap record and win the race by a record 6 laps.

Nothing symbolises the demise of our manufacturing sector more than the closure of Holden.

Holden was bought by GM in 1931, beginning their 89-year history as a combined entity.

This was the start of Holden's demise as the parent company would send profits offshore rather than reinvest into Holden here.

As someone who has analysed financial statements for my working career I can tell you joint ventures always end up screwing the smaller partner because the larger partner always milks the smaller partner via management fees and inter-company charges.

Politicians who should have asked those questions were too busy sprouting neoliberal ideology.

To top it off the Government put in millions of dollars to help prop the industry up without asking for equity in return. Yet again the big end of town screws the taxpayer.

There’s no doubt it is difficult to compete against cheaper manufacturing labour in Asia, but given automation today surely it’s possible.

We can’t continue to fool ourselves that rising house values propped up by debt and high immigration is sustainable or a sign of wealth.

A country without mechanics is a very poor country indeed.



Remember, stuff used to work well, economically, in the past, so what changed? What happened to screw things up and overturn the apple cart? Things can be altered and reversed to a very large degree. If import costs where high, and outside acquisitions of local businesses not allowed, then countries can return to being much more self sufficient.

[Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, October 27, 2024.]