25% of government car fleet foreign made
April 6, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Despite the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, asking us to buy local, it has been revealed this morning that more than 25 per cent of the Australian Government car fleet is foreign made.
Government rules state clearly that a foreign car can only be purchased if there is a “compelling need” that cannot be met by an Australian manufacturer, but still 2089 cars in the government fleet of approximately 8000 are produced off-shore.
This figure does consist of some 1700 foreign-made Holdens, Fords and Toyotas – carmakers that have manufacturing plants in Australia – but it would seem public servants still prefer to purchase imported vehicles with popular models including Chrysler, Honda, Mazda and Volkswagen.
Opposition Special Minister of State, Michael Ronaldson, said the issue was “a bitter slap in the face for Australian workers and manufacturing”.
“I wonder how the Ford workers in Geelong feel, knowing that fat-cats in Canberra have snubbed them for a foreign-made luxury vehicle,” said Mr Ronaldson.
The Victorian senator said he didn’t see the need to purchase foreign built cars claiming Australian-made cars were both affordable and of high quality.
Interestingly, and perhaps highlighting environmental concerns, the majority of those cars that were foreign made are small-engine vehicles that are not made in Australia.
Senator Ronaldson said regardless of this fact the Government should step in and order bureaucrats to obey official rules.
What do you think? Should the Government fleet contain only locally produced vehicles?
Source: News.com.au
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Besides why should the Government subsidise car co’s locallity, let them sort it garage out. The market will dictate the cars sold, I don’t suppose there’s room for Falcons or Commodors in reality due to limited numbers sold and with such little exporting to make developemnt worthwhile. Global cars for Global markets its the way things are going.
I agree with you Cupid – that Global cars are the way most car companies are heading.. that is designing cars that have more “international appeal” etc.
Unfortunately however; GM are still designing/building cars that are about as aerodynamic as a brick with as much appeal as syphilis.
The only exception is the Camaro [which was designed by Holden]
If they were serious about their survival they would: sell off car these car companies like Cadillac/Buick as well as get rid of their designers [along with their rulers]
Yeah well after Rudds just announced “the largest infrastructure decision in Australia’s history”, faster broadband………..they all may be catching the bus . Really got your priories right there Rudd,start of a recession and you start planning a legacy for yourself…….
OF COURSE THEY SHOULD HAVE AUSTRALIAN GOVERMENT CARS ONLY AND THE POLICE CARS AS WELL.
Bret says: “It’s just that some of the cars built here were designed/developed here and hence are considered Australian, whereas others, like Camry/Aurion for example, are just overseas designs built here (with lots of imported parts), so are never consideresd Australian.”
The funny thing is Bret I remember reading about it in the mags/paper etc that when the VE Commodore was first released, it had the least amount of Australian made content of all the Aus assembled cars. Even the Toyotas had more Aus made content. Whilst the Toyotas were not designed here like the Commodore/Falcon, they still had a fair amount of development work done in country. For quite a while Australia was one of the main developing grounds for Toyota world wide, even for models not available here. In someway that is no different to Ford Doing Falcon development work in Scandanavia etc.
Australian made cars are too big and too thirsty. The government needs to set an example and buy smaller more economical cars, and it’s about time the local car makers started producing them. Private car buyers are purchasing small cars like Corolla and Mazda 3.