Adventure Ausrama Blog

Tony Abbot said that he would like to be known as the "development" prime minister. With the deficit that the Australian Coalition government aims to reduce as soon as possible, this simply cannot happen. Investment on roads, schools and hospitals takes cash that Australia does not have. Just how he planned to invest and save is a mystery. Legacies cannot be planned. They happen due to one's behavior and circumstances that cannot be controlled. Planning the future particularly your own is difficult. Of course he stopped the boats by being ruthless and taking action that has infuriated our neighbor, Indonesia. This always was a dangerous course of action. Diplomatically it is an absolute mess with future repercussions unknown. What is certain is that he will be known as the prime minister who killed the Australian automotive industry. Blaming labor costs is tunnel vision on his part. Other input costs are high : a strong currency, power costs, transpor...

There are calls from many quarters for keeping Australia's car industry alive. I am not so sure that a country needs its own motor industry anymore. Times have changed. No vehicle is made entirely in one country today. The days of getting prestige from it are long gone. Propping up a floundering car sector is against all practical economic and social theory. It doesn't make sense to spend taxpayers money in such a wasteful way. Holden and Ford continue to take handouts while still not making any profit. Ford has already gone. The days for Holden are numbered. Holden was never a truly Australian car. It was an old General Motors design left in a drawer collecting dust until it was thrown on the table at a meeting in Australia. Australia has never been a manufacturing country. It is not like Britain which has very in the way of natural resources so must generate income somehow from industry. Large businesses have only been in the primary sector. Exporting wh...