KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Two or three of the nation's top four car makers could struggle to maintain Australian operations due to financial pressures, risking at least 7000 jobs in Melbourne and Adelaide.
A News Ltd paper has reported Holden GM, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Ford told the government their head offices in Tokyo and Detroit are reluctant to commit more investment to Australia.
Car manufacturers are under intense international pressure and competition and the strong Australian dollar is also affecting exporters.
The car companies wrote to the government demanding a "serious review" of the A$3 billion ($3.6 billion) car assistance plan, the freezing of tariff cuts and "real assistance" including a rebate to develop hybrid green cars, the newspaper reports.
The exit of Mitsubishi in Adelaide, Ford in Geelong and Broadmeadows in Melbourne could happen as soon as next year the letter states.
The possibility of a new Labor government does not assuage the motor company's fears either.
The four companies said they were deeply nervous about the possibility of pattern wage bargaining and more militant unions emerging if Labor rolled back the government's workplace relation laws.
The newspaper reports the submission said: "In essence, the question that the industry is raising is why would a Toyota, Ford or a General Motors in Tokyo or Detroit respectively want to invest millions in upgrading an Australian operation when they are facing higher labour costs, greater union militancy and the threat of more strike action, when they can put their money into low-cost and highly efficient Chinese operations?"
- AAP
