Articles by Tory Shepherd

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane is expected to announce in Adelaide today that the $900 million cuts will no longer go ahead.The ATS was established in 2011 to support car and component manufacturers. But after Holden announced it was going to stop making cars in Australia, the Government argued the support was no longer needed. It had planned to reduce the level of funding available between 2015 and 2017 by $500 million.Another $400 million in savings would be achieved by bringing forward the closure of the scheme from 2021 to the beginning of 2018.A total of $1.9 billion will be available to assist the automotive industry beyond the closure of local manufacturing in 2017Critics had warned the funding cuts could bring forward the closure of Australian car manufacturing and destroy the ability of components suppliers to move into other high-value, export-oriented work.It is the latest "barnacle" to be removed as the Federal Government scrapes away unpopular policies in a bid to boost its political fortunes.Its decision not to reduce funding means a total of $1.9 billion will be available to assist the automotive industry beyond the closure of local manufacturing in 2017.Reducing the flow of industry support could lead to key components suppliers failingIndustry analysts had warned that reducing the flow of industry support could lead to key components suppliers failing. Manufacturers said an "uncontrolled" early closure could put 48,000 jobs at risk.The cuts were almost certain to be blocked in the Senate. Labor opposed the proposed cuts and Senate crossbenchers were unlikely to support the necessary amendments to the Automotive Transformation Scheme Act.South Australian Independent senator Nick Xenophon and his Victorian colleague, John Madigan, were both fierce critics of the early closure of the scheme.The planned cuts contributed to the voter backlash that led to the Victorian state Liberal government being thrown out of office last year after only one term.A Senate inquiry into the future of the automotive industry is due to hold hearings in Melbourne today and in Adelaide on Friday.The Coalition promised to cut $500m from the scheme before 2013 electionThe Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association will tell the inquiry the scheme should be extended to cover more component manufacturers. Aftermarket businesses manufacture engines, seats, instrument panels, transmission and accessories.The group is seeking support for an Australian high-performance technology and motorsport "cluster" to help the industry innovate.It also argues that Australia needs a specialised automotive product development and testing laboratory.Currently, products must be sent to the US for testing.$3.4bn scheme established by Gillard government in 2011 to encourage investment and innovation in the Australian car industry.The Coalition promised to cut $500m from the scheme before 2013 election.In 2014, the Government announced plans to bring forward closure from 2021 to 2018, saving an additional $400m.Cuts opposed in the Senate, amid warnings they could bring forward the closure of Holden.

A government tender awarded to an Australian company was later taken away and given to German carmaker BMW last year.

Holden workers who took one for the team by accepting a tough new pay deal will get slugged again because their car packages will be affected by proposed new tax changes. Workers at the beleaguered factory have lost a pay rise, will get fewer breaks and can now get sacked for inefficiency, but they voted for the deal to help the company keep going.But now many - if not most of them – stand to be hit again because they are on lease schemes run under the current fringe benefits tax system, the system the Government proposes to change. Toyota workers also have vehicles as part of their salary package or leased through the company. It is understood that the FBT changes could make such schemes unsustainable.A Holden spokesman did not have exact numbers of those affected but said “many of our employees lease vehicles from Holden”. “If the proposed FBT changes became law we would have to make an assessment of whether we could continue to lease cars to our employees in the same way,” he said.According to the Australian Salary Packaging Industry Association, four out of five people affected by the changes are public sector workers such nurses, police and teachers. A spokesperson for Industry Minister Kim Carr said the FBT changes, which close a loophole and make it more difficult to get tax concessions, and add to the red tape burden, made the system fairer. “These changes do not discriminate against any one company or group of workers. We believe that no taxpayer should have to subsidise the costs for someone else’s private use of a motor vehicle,” they said.The spokesperson for Senator Carr said the Government was providing a $200 million “short-term stimulus measure”, and a commitment to making all Commonwealth fleets Australian-made in contrast with the Coalition policy of reducing subsidies by $500 million.Ford reportedly said last week production would be shut down for 12 days over the next two months, and blamed six of those days on FBT changes. “(Prime Minister Kevin) Rudd and Senator Carr need to end this shambles, and finally acknowledge that the best way governments can help manufacturing businesses is to stop loading them up with new taxes, regulations and costs,” Opposition industry spokes-woman Sophie Mirabella said. 

A "perfectstorm" is about to hit the car industry, Australian Motor Industry Federation chair Richard Dudley has warned.The next federal government must act within 100 days to save it, he said yesterday. Mr Dudley said it was not just car manufacturers at risk but all the businesses that repair, sell and service the nation's cars.He said the automotive workforce dwindled by 16,000 people last year. "Unless a more strategic, whole-of-industry approach is taken, then the resulting deluge may impact our ongoing reliance on road transport and the social and economic wellbeing of the nation," he said at the National Press Club yesterday.His comments follow a turbulent time in the industry after Ford declared it would be forced to shut down its Australian operations. Holden is also wobbling, with boss Mike Devereux saying the cost of making cars in this country is unsustainable. Holden is asking its workers to take pay cuts and is offering redundancies.Mr Dudley said the industry needed a "clear pathway" for government intervention, assistance and support. He called for an increased awareness of the changes affecting the industry, the need for better industry self-regulation and better partnerships with government to develop a longer-term plan for the industry through a White Paper and a Green Paper."So critical are the issues facing the entire industry that AMIF demands that within the first 100 days of the 44th Australian Parliament, the Government engages with industry and starts the development of a Green Paper (a preliminary report) and, ultimately, a White Paper, on the future of the automotive industry to be delivered within 12 months," he said.The Federal Coalition, which is likely to be in power after the September election, has pledged to start a Productivity Commission review of car industry subsidies as soon as possible after the election.They say they are committed to creating a viable future for the car industry and that repealing the Carbon Tax will lower manufacturing costs. The Government says it will maintain the existing level of funding for the industry and says the Coalition's policy of reducing that funding by $500 million would "kill" the industry. 

Now I’ve previously expressed my hatred of stickers that pretend to be passionately patriotic when in fact they're just racist. But this time I've undertaken a more in-depth scientific study of the chasm between what a sticker purveys and the actual truth. You think a sticker will fool people into believing you are more than you are? I Call Bullshit. Here's a few examples. BAD GRRRRRRL Aspirational image: Empowered Lara Croft-style chick with toned abs and bad attitude, who leaves sapling men quailing with lust in her wake. Reality: Most commonly spotted in the wastelands of suburbia on the back end of a sputtering Corolla. Eight out of ten owners are flabby around the midriff, likely to spend their days toiling away at a menial job under the direction of a balding middle manager. They tend to consider themselves bad because they spend the weekdays talking about the copious amounts of Bundaberg Rum they drink on the weekends. More likely than the average Australian woman to still have childhood teddy bears inhabiting their bedroom. FRANGIPANI FLOWERS Aspirational image: Tropical princess. A dusky-skinned beauty lolling in paradise, cocktail in hand, as flowers drift across an azure pool. Reality: Clusters can be seen in the carpark of the Westfield at Modbury, far from sandy shores. Owner/driver tends to be pallid, with oversized sunglasses and Haviana thongs the only indication of exposure to sunnier climes. The aspirational tropical princess tends to be aged in their mid 20s, and is exponentially more likely to expose the pale flesh between top and low-slung bottoms that is commonly home to the tramp stamp. MAGIC HAPPENS Aspirational image: A mystical being clad in seductively human guise; trailed by the haunting smell of patchouli oil. A goddess; a benevolent witch; someone who inhabits a realm above mere mortals. Reality: In 75 per cent of cases this is an older lady in comfortable shoes whose incense fails to mask the lingering odour of cat pee. The dreamcatcher hanging from the rear-vision mirror has systematically failed to eradicate nightmares of irrelevance, and the crystal deodorant has long since stopped working. Read more Tory Shepherd. Stick figure family? Jetpilot? No Fat Chicks? Rumpig?What's the worst (or wittiest) bumper sticker you've seen? Comment below...

Drivers should slow down, be aware, and avoid killing native animals without putting their own lives in danger. Other animals, though, may not deserve so much care.  You shouldn’t run down kangaroos, for example - but cats could be another matter. Wicked Campers - providers of psychedelic patchouli and body odour-scented vans to cash-strapped backpackers dependent on two-minute noodles and goonbags - are in strife.  They had stickers on 1000 of their hire vans that read: "Kangaroo’s: run the f(*&kers down’’ (in some instances it was `run the buggers down’). Once you quell the red-raw rage that comes from the inappropriate use of apostrophes, you’ll realise it’s also a fairly abhorrent idea. Boss John Webb defended the stickers.  He said his kangaroo-loving clients risked rolling the campers when they swerved to save the life of our emblematic animal. So he advised them to mow them down instead. That excuse was never going to stop the righteous animal activists of the world from having a crack. OK, they’re right that it was stupid, inappropriate and probably encouraged our backpacking brethren to target poor roos. Not to mention a roo is likely to leave you in a bad, bad way if you hit it. So, overall, stupid. But they don’t have to be so earnest about it.  I digress. There may be a place for a 'run the f***ers down' campaign, perhaps with a little less outright aggression. But it’d have to be far more strategic. Certainly any pegless clothesline, Leatherman and Teva-toting visitor to our shores - or any grey nomad or Britz van driver for that matter - should learn it is acceptable - nay, desirable - to mow down cane toads. Make that one a national sport. Cats? Ah, cats. Ferals are not worth slowing down for - but the problem is the difficulty telling whether the slinking creature in front of you is a wild beast that will single handedly eat every last surviving purple-crested bandiroo, or if it’s Auntie May’s sole, toothless companion. But hypothetically speaking, if you can see that it’s the former rather than the latter, the world is a better place without it. Hares aren’t killers, but they are pests, so don’t feel too guilty if one of them goes under the wheels.  Foxes you should never feel too bad about - although baby foxes are bloody cute, the sight of a chicken that’s met one of the deadly ginger bastards is most decidedly not. The main problem is you just don’t generally have time (especially on country roads) to work out whether the moving thing up ahead is friend or foe.  And I’m not sure how many people would, even once they’ve identified that the potential roadkill is something that should be eradicated, have the intestinal fortitude to deliberately run it over. Read full story here