Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

They are warned? But there was a general warning. Australia's share of world car production has decreased from 0.8 per cent of cars in 2000 to 0.32 per cent of cars in 2011. That is our share of world car production. So it has virtually halved.

In contrast, during that period, from the beginning of this century, in Asian economies and the Middle East car production has increased from six per cent of world production to 36 per cent of world production. So global manufacturers have moved to places of production where it is cheaper to produce a motor vehicle. That was best evidenced by Toyota's submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry, which states that by 2018 it 'needs to reduce the cost of producing each vehicle in Australia by $3,800'. Holden has said 'it costs $3,750 per vehicle more to build cars in Australia relative to other countries such as Thailand'. And of that $3,750, $2,000 is within Holden's own plants—and it mainly relates to the cost of labour. Another $1,500 is associated with their buy-local program and the final $250 is the cost of logistics for imported components.

The high cost of production in Australia is no secret. Everyone knows it has been the case; it has been regularly stated by the manufacturers themselves. As it is no secret that the costs of production were proving so prohibitive—

Mr Zappia interjecting—

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