I essentially agree. Whilst it is sad to lose jobs it is unfortunately difficult to go back from here. Unfortunately without Holden the whole house of cards will come down and hence Toyota will be not far behind as they will not be enough to support the supply industry that feeds all the bits that make up a car that are still made here.
The thing that I am more worried about than the loss of jobs, is the loss of the Country's inherent "memory", or in other words the knowledge/skills ingrained in people that make up the population that work for a big manufacuring Industry. I've seen it in the Hunter area after the Newcastle Steelworks closed in 1999. Everybody moved on, but people in my game (Electrical, but it applies across the board) that were trained there have a very well rounded Electrical experience and knowledge base. We are all getting older, many now retired and even gone and the last people trained like us were in the mid 90's. Traineeships/Apprenticeships and work experiences like BHP provided are all but finished, and as a result I see more and more how difficult it is to find savvy electrical people that don't have a "blinkers" on knowledge base. It isn't their fault, but a consequence of the loss of a major manufacturing industry with a very broad training experience ranging from design through to tight tolerance/QA production. In my world, where else would I get experience in 1920's DC dynamic lowering crane hoists, mercury arc rectifiers yet get to install and commission modern AC motor drives, and have 100 very experienced people around me to ask if I don't know the answer?
The loss of Holden to South Australia and Victoria will probably have a similar effect on the people in that area in 20 years time.
Just think about this, if the USA had to for some reason launch one of the remaining Apollo rockets quickly for whatever reason, I bet the knowledge to do it isn't there anymore. In 1o years time the knowledge base to get an Iowa class battleship going again quickly will be all but gone. There will be books and manuals but understanding the technology will be gone. I'm afraid that is what is happening to us all here once we lose our manufacturing base. We are all becoming good at digging holes and moving what we did up, but all we can do otherwise is consume!