In February 2014, Toyota Motor Corporation announced its plans to stop production of its cars in Australia by 2017. Word of the shutdown came just months after Ford's announcement in May 2013 and Holden's announcement in December that it, too, would be ceasing automotive manufacturing operations in Australia. The loss of Toyota, which has been producing cars in Australia for the last fifty years, came as the last shocking blow and is seen as a symbol of the end of Australia's automotive manufacturing industry.
Toyota's global boss, Akio Toyoda, traveled across the globe to make the announcement concerning the plant's closure in 2017. The industry giant currently manufactures both the Camry and the Aurion at the Australian location, and the shutdown could send Victoria and South Australia into a major economic recession.
The collapse of the Australian manufacturing industry has left employees weeping in the streets with the worry that the manufacturing industry will never be the same. The closure of the Ford plants cost the country approximately 45,000 jobs, and Holden's closure resulted in loss of an additional 50,000 jobs. What started as tens of thousands of individual jobs lost to both skilled and unskilled laborers is now signifying the collapse of an entire industry, with hundreds of thousands of jobs going away within the next three years. All three of the car brands will now import their vehicles. Thousands of related jobs in the automobile industry are now in grave danger of being lost along with the car manufacturing industry.
Many in the manufacturing industry predicted the demise and hoped the government would intervene. Toyota did not ask the government for assistance, but it made an attempt to negotiate workplace arrangements that would save the carmaker around $3,500 per vehicle. The unions in court proceedings denied the attempts at negotiations. The company stated the main reasons for pulling the manufacturing industry from Australia were purely economical, citing the high Australia dollar, the elevated cost of manufacturing in the country, and free-trade agreements. Former Premier Steve Bracks stated that the demise could have been avoided, but the current Prime Minister Tony Abbott chose to ignore the situation. Bracks said both Abbott and current Premier Denis Napthine should have gone to Japan to help press the case for changes for the carmaker.
Political problems and a slow economic market caused the Toyota Motor Corporation to walk away from the manufacturing industry in Australia. Industry specialists believe the automotive manufacturing industry will never recover and fear it will be impossible to replace the jobs lost in the car industry, leaving devastation countrywide. The plant closings will not only affect those who work for the car manufacturing plants, but other workers all the way down the supply chain.
(Photo courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net)
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