Australia’s industrial sector will face a ‘tsunami of bankruptcies’ if the government doesn’t assist the regions devastated by the end of car assembly, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.
Dogandlemon.com editor Clive Matthew-Wilson – who accurately predicted the downfall of the car assembly industry – says:
“As usual, it’s the people at the bottom who will pay for the mistakes made by the people at the top. Holden and Ford will continue to sell cars in Australia, but these cars won’t be made here, and the regions that used to make these cars will simply collapse economically. Surely everyone can see how this sad story is going to end?
“Towns like Elizabeth are car towns, which will shortly be ghost towns. There’s no Plan B for the thousands of workers and hundreds of businesses that will go bankrupt as a result of the Holden closure.
“The saddest thing of all is that many industrial towns are a goldmine of talent. Australia’s car industry can boast world-class engineers, designers, craftsmen and skilled workers. These engineers, designers, craftsmen and skilled workers are critical to the survival of Australia’s industrial sector. To simply let the industrial towns die when the car companies move on would be criminal.”
Matthew-Wilson believes the government should immediately stop paying subsidies to the car companies, and instead to invest the same money in the car towns and redundant workers.
“The car companies will still be in business after the handouts stop, but the assembly workers will be hit brutally hard. The government should spend the taxpayers' money helping redundant car assembly workers pay off their mortgages or perhaps start small businesses. At least that way the money wouldn't be wasted. As things stand, the taxpayers' billions have paid the bills for a couple of multinational corporations, while doing nothing to solve the underlying problems with Australia’s industry.
“Australia can’t compete directly with Thailand and China. Australia’s industrial future – if it has one – lies in highly skilled, specialised production. Any other path is sure to end in tears.”
