Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has called for Australia to revive its defunct carmaking industry, saying technological advances in production methods and the electric vehicle revolution have paved the way for its return.

The 26th PM was addressing the National Press Club on Thursday in his capacity as the Global CEO of the Asia Society when he made the call. He also torched the forces he believes were behind the demise of car manufacturing down under.

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The last Australian-built Holden rolled off the production line in October 2017, shortly after Toyota closed its Melbourne plant after 54 years of operation. Ford ended 91 years of local vehicle manufacturing in October 2016.

Rudd called the automotive sector “a sovereign capability we are sorely missing” as he made scathing remarks about the Coalition’s role in the upheaval.

“Of all the shortsighted acts of economic vandalism in recent decades, the closure of our car industry by the Abbott-Hockey government stands apart,” Rudd said. “Australia under my government had one of the most modest industry subsidies in the auto world.

“But politics triumphed over reason, sacrificing tens of thousands of jobs, tearing the beating heart out of Australia’s engineering and manufacturing base, and rendering us 100 per cent dependent on auto imports.

“Now the 3D printing and EV revolutions mean we can rebuild an Australian auto sector and repair this fatal vulnerability in our national security.”

Ford Factory in Broadmeadows
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Rudd’s speech was titled “The Complacent Country” and its main thrust was that Australia now faces an “unprecedented” set of strategic, economic and technological challenges. He said the nation is living on “borrowed time” and needs a “radical change in our national mindset”.

He identified seven sectors in which government and industry can collaborate to establish world-class companies and take advantage of AI-driven growth, with car manufacturing the sixth sector on his list.

Rudd isn’t alone in his call to bring back the auto industry. Shadow industry minister Andrew Hastie did the same last September when he posted an image to social media showing him standing next to a vintage Ford Falcon and wrote, “We used to make complex things in this country… competition drove innovation in our car industry. But that’s all gone.”