Potential silver lining

[flappist]

The earthquakes in ChCh and Japan have been horrific and shown just how fragile the planet is in some places.
The Japanese car manufacturing industry has taken a bit of a hit and potentially many other places could suffer a similar fate.

But not here.

We are in the middle of a tectonic plate and apart from a few small abberations (Newcastle for example) are one of the most stable places on earth.

So why not move manufacturing here?

Well apart from labour and union issues, government bureaucracy and a general laziness and weekend mentality it should be able to work.

But it would have to be competitive.

Lots of robots and high technology.
No assistant forklift drivers on $100,000 per year 9 day fortnight 6 weeks holidays triple time on weekends.

Would it be possible to produce a world class car that would sell at a world class price and be exported in Australia?

Or would there be too much "you would destroy our local industry" (even though it would be local) "you would put people out of jobs" (even though it would employ people that actually want to work).......