GM says it cannot justify further investment in a long-unprofitable business
!” grinned the prime minister of the day, Ben Chifley, as the first car built entirely in Australia rolled off the assembly line in 1948. The Holden, as it was known, was greeted as a totem of a young nation joining the ranks of industrialised economies. Better yet, it had an Australian pedigree, even if General Motors owned the factory. Holden had been a saddle-making firm in Adelaide that began to manufacture car bodies to go with imported engines and chassis in 1919.
Holden had already closed its last factory in Australia in 2017; its vehicles are now imported, from Thailand among other places. Ford and Toyota closed Australian assembly lines at the same time, leaving Australia with no carmakers. To be competitive, analysts reckoned, Australian factories needed to churn out 200,000-300,000 cars a year. On the eve of its plant’s closure, Holden was making just 80,000.
Manufacturing’s share of Australia’s economy peaked in the 1960s, in Holden’s heyday. It now accounts for just under 6% of, well below the level of most other rich countries. But that has not stopped the Australian economy—and local wages—from growing faster than their peers.
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