www.ntnews.com.au Thursday, December 12, 2013. NT NEWS. 3

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NTNE-WS-DA-TE:12-DGE:3 CO-LO-R: C-M Y-K

COOLER TORCH NOW SOLD @ WISDOM/FOX ALE HOUSE

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Holden on no longer

By JOSHUA DOWLING

Classic Holden Car Club of the NT’s Mal Janes — with his 1971 HQ Statesman — says he is is sad to see Holden end its Aussie operations Picture: ELISE DERWIN

SalescrashforceshandHOLDEN’S shutdown meansthe once mighty Aussie com-pany will become a shell ofits former self and importmost of its cars from theneighbouring Asian coun-tries that have forced it toshut its factories.

The iconic car maker yes-terday triggered a storm ofoutrage after announcing itwould no longer manufac-ture cars here from 2017, cut-ting 2900 jobs across its Aust-ralian operations.

Unions said Holden’s‘‘devastating’’ announce-ment would leave 50,000 job-less and rip $21 billion out ofthe nation’s economy.

It said Toyota was set tofollow, with the withdrawalsounding a death knell forthe Australian car industry.

Australian ManufacturingWorkers’ Union spokesmanDave Smith said: ‘‘It’s nowhighly likely that Toyota willleave Australia, in fact it’s al-most certain.

‘‘Fifty thousand workerswill be losing their job be-cause of a decision by Gen-eral Motors today.

‘‘It’s a very bleak day.’’The announcement had

been anticipated for monthsand the Federal Governmenthad been under mountingpolitical pressure to offerincreased subsidies to theDetroit-based company toensure it continued manufac-turing in Australia.

GM’s chief executive DanAkerson said in a statement:‘‘The decision to end manu-facturing in Australia re-

flects the perfect storm ofnegative influences the in-dustry faces in the country,including the sustainedstrength of the Australiandollar, high cost of product-ion, small domestic marketand arguably the most com-petitive and fragmented automarket in the world.’’

By closing its Australianmanufacturing operations,Holden will lose critical gov-ernment contracts that givepreference to local car ma-kers, representing up to one-third of sales of some models.

Once Holden is reduced toa sales and marketing oper-

ation it is likely to be knock-ed out of the top-three sellingbrands for the first timesince it started building carsin 1948.

Holden has been the No.2selling brand for the past 10years behind Toyota, but ison track to post its lowestsales in 20 years and in sev-eral months this year hasbeen overtaken by Mazda,Hyundai and Nissan.

As it is, the locally-madeHolden Commodore sedanand Cruze small car rankbehind the Toyota Corollaand Mazda3 from Japan, theToyota HiLux pick-up from

Thailand and the Hyundaii30 hatch from South Koreain the sales race this year.

The closure of the engineplant in Port Melbourne in2016 will cost an estimated300 jobs, while the car as-sembly line in Elizabeth in2017 will put 1600 employeesout of work.

Holden boss Mike Deve-reux said GM’s decision was‘‘irreversible’’ and sympath-ised with workers.

‘‘No matter which way weapply the numbers our long-term business case to makecars in this country is simplynot viable,’’ he said.

‘‘As painful as it is to say,building cars in this countryis just not sustainable . . .there is nothing I can say toanybody to take the sting outof this announcement.’’

Holden will also close itscar-testing facility at LangLang on the southeast out-skirts of Melbourne and sackup to 1000 vehicles dynamicsengineers and headquartersstaff associated with pur-chasing and manufacturing.

Advocates for the carmanufacturing industry clai-med the Holden shutdownwould wipe up to 50,000 jobsacross Australia because

Japanese giant Toyota wouldalmost certainly close its fac-tories no later than 2018.

The Federal Chamber ofAutomotive Industries andthe Australian Manufactur-ing Workers’ Union have lob-bied for all car makers to re-ceive government subsidies.

However, foreign vehiclemakers build more cars, em-ploy more workers and ex-port more vehicles becausethey are operating in morefavourable economic condit-ions, including lower wages.

The taxpayer subsidies toAustralian car makers aren’tinternationally competitive.

Disused runway makes for rough landingA PILOT landed an aero-plane on a closed Territoryairstrip, a report revealed.

An investigation by theAustralian Transport SafetyBureau released on Tuesdaydetailed how a Cessna 404VH-HVR landed amongdense vegetation near

Pigeon Hole, 450km south-west of Katherine.

On July 24 this year, thepilot flew from Darwin toPigeon Hole using the elec-tronic flight planning sys-tem to generate the flightplan. According to the re-port, the landing area coordi-

nates had been previouslyentered into the GPS, whichwas to be used throughoutthe flight to navigate.

The report said the pilotleft Darwin 45 minutes be-hind schedule and had re-ported feeling tired.

When close to the desti-

nation, the pilot noticed thatthe runway surface ap-peared overgrown with veg-etation but landed anyway.

The plane collided withshrubs but only sufferedminor damage. The pilotthen flew to the correct land-ing area near Pigeon Hole.

Theft suspect lashes out at store staffAN ALLEGED thief was sto-pped with a small meat traydown the back of his pantsleaving a Darwin supermar-ket, but lashed out at staffwhen they confronted him,police said.

The 33-year-old man alleg-

edly stole the food fromWoolworths about 6.30pmlast Thursday.

‘‘And then he stored itdown his pants,’’ DutySuperintendent SachinSharma said.

‘‘He became violent when

confronted and threwpunches.’’ The staff were notseriously injured.

Police arrested the manand Superintendent Sharmaexpected him to be chargedwith robbery and stealingwith violence.

And the IGA Express storeon Smith St has been brokeninto for the second time in thesix months since it opened.

Thieves stole about $2000worth of alcohol when theygot into the store in the earlyhours of Thursday.