His Telstra term has apparently left Ziggy Switkowski with a taste for Gaullist illogic.
He reckons that the absence of a rationale — other than rent-seeking — is not fatal to a policy that supports a “diverse” industrial patrimoine.
It is very hard to make a conventional business case for subsidisation of (or, more fashionably, co-investment in) car assembly activities. There are too many subjective assumptions with which to populate the spreadsheets. And the calculations can be tortured or interpreted to support one’s preferred outcome.
Extract from Car industry is a special case | Z. Switkowski in The Australian
However, this is not a fatal flaw …
We no longer can our own peas, knit our own socks or make steam trains either! Our industrial gene-pool is drying up! Horreur!