Hobart 5 August 2013. Supporting Australian manufacturing is important but the Government must not throw good money after bad.


All government assistance to car manufacturers must include the condition that it will be repaid in the event manufacturing ceases in Australia.


Unfortunately there is a very real risk that no amount of taxpayer subsidies will be enough to keep automotive manufacturing in Australia over the long term.


The car manufacturers are all foreign firms. If they choose to exit Australia they mustn’t be allowed to take the hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funded subsidies they’ve received over the years with them.