Broadcaster Michael McLaren says if the Prime Minister was “fairdinkum, instead of having a crack at GM” he would be wise to review how government policy impacted the closure of Holden. General Motors – the parent company of Holden – last week announced it would be closing the Holden brand across Australia and New Zealand, wiping out around 600 jobs in the process.
“Over the last decade, the Australian government and the Australian public hardly encouraged Holden to hang on,” he said.
“In her heyday, Holden accounted for 50% of all new car sales, today it's closer to 4%”.
Mr McLaren said the federal government had “withdrawn financial support,” signed “disadvantageous” free trade agreements, overseen “massive hikes in energy prices,” and abolished tariffs.
These policies may have been beneficial to other sectors like agriculture, but they have “destroyed most of our manufacturing sector especially car makers”.
Image: News Corp Australia
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