Car industry on the decline?
A leading public policy think thank is urging the Rudd Government to phase out financial assistance to the Australian car industry in a bid to avoid further waste of taxpayers money. The Centre for Independent Studies today released a report saying that car manufacturing is not a key industry in Australia. It says that other industries such as Nano – and Bio technology are far more important for Australian manufacturing in the future. But the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union has rejected claims that the car industry is not viable and says that thousands of jobs would be lost without the Governments stimulus package. The Wire’s Anne von Fehrn spoke to the reports author Dr Hartwich, who says there is no such thing as an Australian owned car.