![]() You can’t stop the product lifecycle, but we can do more to ensure that new products developed here are made here. Likewise, it was the advent of the SUV that really killed Australia’s car industry rather than a lack of government support. Products die – The federal government invested $50 million in Kodak’s factory in Coburg and then digital photography came along.The “branch office” mentality – Why keep a factory in Australia going when you can just add an extra production shift on to your factory in Bangkok, Atlanta, Hamburg or Gothenburg? When the chips are down, most corporates will protect their home market and home operation first and sacrifice “branch offices” like Australia.They destroyed many good Australian manufacturers by their focus on stripping out cost and saddling businesses with debt. Corporate incompetence – The 1980’s and 1990’s financial masterminds behind leveraged buyouts have a lot to answer for.The prolonged spike in the Australian dollar and in wages driven by the mining boom.Eventually it becomes cheaper to just shut down than bring the factory up to date. Failure to reinvest – Many Australian factories, particularly in large companies, were old, with equipment that was decades old.Collapse of upstream and downstream supply chains – Often when key suppliers or customers closed down, other companies in the supply chain could not sustain their operations – even if they themselves were competitive. ![]() In fact there were many other reasons for the loss of production including: However, the decline in Australian manufacturing was not just due to lower tariffs, cheap Chinese labour or bad Australian unions. ![]() Therefore, trying to boost manufacturing by reimposing tariffs or other forms of protectionism is not the answer to rebuilding manufacturing. As a result, when the Whitlam, then later the Hawke Labor government brought down the tariff walls many Australian manufacturers were ill equipped to compete.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |