25/06/2013 - More than 450 automotive businesses are closing
across the nation on average each year, the Australian Motor Industry
Federation warns. David Barbeler
With the federal government focused on the closure of sites
by companies like Ford, federation chief Richard Dudley says the remaining 75
per cent of the industry also needs help.
Dudley has called on the next government to develop a green
paper on the future of the entire automotive industry within 100 days of
winning office — and a white paper within 12 months.
Some 2700 people left the domestic car or car component
manufacturing sector in 2011/12, but that figure is dwarfed by the 13,000
people who left the maintenance and body repair industries.
Dudley said independent mechanics are finding it difficult
to keep up-to-date with the onboard technology of the hundreds of different car
models available.
"There is an SUV on the Australian market today,
retailing for under $30,000, that has more computing power than was used to get
astronauts to the moon," Dudley told the National Press Club in Canberra
on Tuesday.
"It's becoming increasingly difficult to have all the
necessary tools, equipment, diagnostic computer capability and skills.
"Successive governments at a state and federal level
have focussed on automotive manufacturing, to the detriment of the rest of the
automotive industry."
Dudley said repairers were also finding it hard to keep up.
"Others have adapted by specializing in one or only a
few brands," he said.
The industry is also facing a crisis in attracting young
trainees, with the downstream car sectors that employ 32,0000 people suffering
a shortage of 19,000 mechanics.
One problem was the perception that motor mechanic work was
a "grease monkey, dirty type job", Dudley said.
"A motor mechanic is now part diagnostic technician,
part computer engineer, part mathematician."
Source: AAP
