Demoted Carr still driving force for auto industry

[Road_Warrior]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-1...dustry/3735450

Posted December 16, 2011 17:04:33
Industry Minister Kim Carr Photo: Kim Carr is set to visit Detroit to meet with automotive executives.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard's decision to demote Kim Carr from his post as minister for innovation has put the spotlight on the plight of Australia's automotive industry.

The industry says its profits have been diminished by a strong Australian dollar and the global financial crisis, which dried up investment dollars.

The sector currently turns out fewer cars than it did in 1957.

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Ian Chalmers says car companies are facing some of their most significant challenges ever.

"Those challenges are perhaps not surprisingly created or generated by the persistently high value of the Australian dollar and also the continuing effects of the global financial crisis, which has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the global pool of investment funds," he said.

Greg Combet replaced Senator Carr as Minister for Innovation in Ms Gillard's reshuffle.

But although he is no longer in Cabinet, Senator Carr, now the Manufacturing Minister, will be travelling to Detroit to try to drum up support for Ford and Holden from their respective headquarters.

Mr Chalmers says the Australian automotive industry highly values its relationship with Senator Carr.

"Minister Carr is actively advocating to the global headquarters of the big automotive companies the importance of continuing to sustain their investment to automotive manufacturing in Australia and their commitment to the long-term viability of the industry in this country," he said.

"Senator Carr has been a magnificent advocate for car manufacturing in Australia and I know he is going to continue to do that."
Important partnerships

Mr Chalmers says Senator Carr's trip to Detroit is hugely important for the Australian industry.

"If you talk to the managing directors of the local car manufacturing companies, they'll tell you that their biggest competitors are not other companies but their own company operations in different countries and they're competing to win investment funds from head office," he said.

"That is why the partnership with the Australian Government is so important and one of the reasons why Senator Carr is going to Detroit."
Audio: Australia's car industry faces tough times (The World Today)

But one former managing director of a car company says the Government needs to consider sweeping changes for the whole of the manufacturing sector.

Graham Spurling is a car industry veteran who worked as the managing director of Mitsubishi Australia in the 1980s and was the chief executive of Exide batteries.

He is not convinced that Senator Carr's visit to the US will be enough and is not convinced the industry has the right approach.

"We should have recognised the manufacturing industry a lot earlier and not just concentrated on the automotive assembly area," he said.

"The car industry is just part of our whole manufacturing structure and within that car business is the manufacturer's business to suppliers. Well, they're just about gone."
Isolation

Mr Spurling believes Holden's South Australia plant is the only one in Australia that remains viable and that Ford's facility is likely to close.

He says Holden's facility would be more successful if it focused on building things for whoever wants them, even if that meant building for the competition.

"I'd have that car assembly plant building whatever cars people wanted to build there and building whatever Defence vehicles wanted to be built there or anything that wants to be built for the energy sector, for the mining sector and for the Defence sector," he said.

He says the Government should not be focusing on the automotive industry in isolation and should look instead at the entire manufacturing sector.

"It is the capturing of manufacturing and technology and training and education," he said.

"You look at where we are going to end up if we don't think about it in the broader sense.

"We are going to have everybody, as somebody said, pushing supermarket carts in the parking lot or unemployed.

"There is a whole integration of thought needs to go into this manufacturing sector and it hasn't happened."

Good to see Kim Carr still involved with this.

"I'd have that car assembly plant building whatever cars people wanted to build there and building whatever Defence vehicles wanted to be built there or anything that wants to be built for the energy sector, for the mining sector and for the Defence sector," he said.

Despite his stint with Mitsubishi in the 1980's, this Spurling muppet obviously has no clue about how a modern car assembly business operates - you can't just flick a switch and just start building something random - the assembly plants and more to the point the supply chains - which he is carrying on about - are simply not setup for it.