Totally agree Martin, the only problem I have is: Just like the failed private-enterprise business, the government-subsidised one has to have quality management. This may have been the reason private sectors fail and it is why Government-run contracts and businesses fail as well. It comes down to accountability and passion to do a job well.

Martin, you little closet commie. You've been reading Karl Marx.

Good for you!

The problem is that anything run by any government is notoriously inefficient. Communism failed because of that. Everything they made was of poor quality compared to what was available in the West.

If an industry cannot exist without government assistance, it is obviously not a viable industry in that country and should fail.

Hi so over it, i think that the crux of your arguement was that private companies are able to profit and government ones fail? If so i disagree, the public service and the railways are good examples where a government ran instrumentality were privatised and now it costs us more. There are other reasons why some industriea are best kept in government hands. I can think of the Elcom mines for example. These mines supplied coal into the state power stations. They provided an insurance policy against us paying global prices for coal. The evidence, take a look at your next power bill.

Hi Jackson, interesting statement communism failed? I am sure that there are many out there that as a consequence of the GFC who have lost their life savings would say the same about capitolism!

Using the Lada and the Tabaret as examples the last thing we need is a state owned car manufacturer.

This idea simply can't work in the likes of some business sectors, like the car industry these days, though ~ maybe among their parts suppliers and service providers, but not among the main manufacturers ~ as the required investments now are simply too big...

Just look to the former "Soviet" car companies ~ now all are subsidiaries of corporations like Fiat and Volkswagen ~ whilst at the same time, the former government-owned (now only partly-owned..) Chinese car companies are floated on the stock exchange..

No, it's not a communist model at all, maybe socialism on a reward for performance basis. There are many large car manufacturers in western countries that have significant state ownership, and are very successful, and the others that don't are propped up by government anyway. I am not promoting communism, but as far as the failed communist model goes, I think our friends in Communist China to our north are tending to prove otherwise.

If you are a true believer in the free market, you would be horrified by our public money going to foreign private companies. You would also appreciate that there is no private Australian entity that would be prepared to invest in such a huge capital outlay as a new car manufacturing enterprise. So not being prepared to do such a thing, we are content to send our money overseas to profit foreign companies. If these companies saw a future for our car industry, why are they not spending their own resources supporting their industry and product in our country!

Communism doesn't even work in China. It won't work here. But dream on.