Toyota is on the way out of manufacturing in Aus

[freakiness]

and this is a comment I just read about the situation.  I deleted the name to save him/her from embarrassment.

"This isn't abbots fault. Whoever started importing into country , I think it was Gillard there the ones to blame. When did KIA and great Wall come to this country? There been here a while."

Are some people really so stupid?

[carls*world]

Well, the high dollar (by comparison to relevant ASIAN currencies) and the wages boom of the 80s could be seen as the big culprits. We were ok when those happened back then, as we had tariff protection. Combine the strength of our dollar, with the number of those dollars we need to live a fairly basic life, along with removal of those protective tariffs and we're absolutely non competitive with Asia. If our dollar was worth 1 CNY, or we were only earning (and needing) 50 - 100 of them a week, the playing field would be more even.

[shhh_its_me]

Why blame the government? It's a business decision. If we gave Toyota money to stay here it would merely have gone into the pockets of shareholders. We don't live in a communist society, no one is ever guaranteed a job.

[amber-eyed-girl]

"He'd better get cracking if he's going to create a million jobs. Or did he mean a million jobs overseas?"

the banks are an industry which are quietly moving as many jobs offshore as possible, and importing cheaper finance and IT contractors while there are plenty of skilled professionals without a job right here.

not a manufacturing industry, but a real concern nevertheless.

not like they're in trouble financially, is it.

[spotweldersfriend]

No we live in a capitalist society and its all going pear shaped

[freakiness]

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@shhh_its_me wrote:
Why blame the government? It's a business decision. If we gave Toyota money to stay here it would merely have gone into the pockets of shareholders. We don't live in a communist society, no one is ever guaranteed a job.

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The USA and Germany are not communist societies either and they support their car industries.

[givemeaspell]

I just heard Hockey on the radio, brought up a couple of things blaming the union, first was that the employees at Toyota get 5 sick days annually without the need of a certificate!  Seriously, when is the last time he tried to get into see a doctor the same day he was sick?  And everytime you are sick you don't necessarily need to see a doctor, gastro, headaches, etc - yeah I'll just go and sit in a doctors surgery so he can tell me there is nothing he can do for me so I can take a certificate to work?  How about I've got gastro but I'll go to work and pass it on to everyone else!

Secondly, the day before christmas they only work 5 hours and get paid for 8?.....How many companies do this?  Plenty that I know of, the day before christmas most places unless you are in hospitality or medical would be knocking off early.  Bet him and his poli mates crack open a bottle of the finest and sit around chewing the fat.  

Makes my blood boil, get in the real world and stop blaming the unions for everything.

[monman12]

"It's not actually legal for sheep or goats to vote and most people vote for who ever they "like" at the time of the election."
That is worthy of a chuckle, no a guffaw.

I am surprised that apropos Toyota's (expected) announced departure,  no mention here has been made here of the union's successful  opposition in the Federal Court (Dec 2013) that  Toyota be allowed to vary its workplace agreement via an employee vote upon the proposal.

Good heavens, Toyota only wanted to give the employees the chance to have a say,  but the union did not,  and the result??.

"A statement from Toyota said: "Action in the Federal Court has today resulted in Toyota Australia not being able to proceed with its planned employee vote on the proposed changes to its Workplace Agreement terms and conditions.

The Federal Court's decision to block Toyota from asking its factory workers to vote today on changes to shift flexibility and overtime bonuses means that it is now highly likely that the company will not be meet its stringent cost-reduction targets that are key to securing investment in the 2018 Camry.

It had been trying to slash $3800 from the cost of each car it builds, or about 15 per cent of the production cost.

But the lack of any adjustment to Toyota's workplace agreement means the entire Australian car industry is likely to grind to a halt after Ford's factory shutdowns in 2016, Holden's closures in 2017 and a likely end to Toyota's operations in 2018."

That forecast in December last has been proved correct. Why on earth  did the union embark upon a course of action that most probably precipitated Toyota's decision to cease manufacturing within Australia?

[*crikey*mate*]

Are people missing the fact that this Toyota plant only produces a few models?

Lots of the toyota models are already manufactured off shore.

I don't know if they were ever manufactured here to begion with,

I read an article last night that said the production of medium to large sized cars just isn't profitable in Australia (and that's what this plant manufactures.

With rising fuel costs, people are looking for smaller cars, that's where the demand is, but manufacturers just can't produce them in Australia at a decent profit margin, so they don't.

If toyota genuinely wanted to stay here, they would manufacture their small cars here.

[carls*world]

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@crikey*mate wrote:

Are people missing the fact that this Toyota plant only produces a few models?

Lots of the toyota models are already manufactured off shore.

I don't know if they were ever manufactured here to begion with,

I read an article last night that said the production of medium to large sized cars just isn't profitable in Australia (and that's what this plant manufactures.

With rising fuel costs, people are looking for smaller cars, that's where the demand is, but manufacturers just can't produce them in Australia at a decent profit margin, so they don't.

If toyota genuinely wanted to stay here, they would manufacture their small cars here.

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Prior to the Button plan, most Toyota models were manufactured in Australia, ranging from about 60% to 100% local content, with a few niche models, like Celica being imported.
Why? Because during that era of tariffs, it was cheaper to build locally than to import.

[freakiness]

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@crikey*mate wrote:

Are people missing the fact that this Toyota plant only produces a few models?

Lots of the toyota models are already manufactured off shore.

I don't know if they were ever manufactured here to begion with,

I read an article last night that said the production of medium to large sized cars just isn't profitable in Australia (and that's what this plant manufactures.

With rising fuel costs, people are looking for smaller cars, that's where the demand is, but manufacturers just can't produce them in Australia at a decent profit margin, so they don't.

If toyota genuinely wanted to stay here, they would manufacture their small cars here.

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The plan was to build the Camry here for the domestic and export market.  It is absolutely inefficient to build a small number each of a variety of models.  Hence the decision to focus on making one model.