Part of the problem has to be the Commodore. It was past its usebuy date ten years ago. They needed to focus on a smaller car and a proper 4WD like the Prado. You don't see anyone driving a Commodore west of the mountains in NSW and you see very few driving them in Sydney either.
Labour price has cost all Australians our manufacturing industry. That's why I went mining. To pay to run my business. Now that's reverse of how it should be.
China has us just where they need us. We depend on them to keep our economy going. Disposable income being used on Chinese imports. We are all guilty of that one.
Then you can get deeper into the problem of a totally financially driven government system. Most first world government are like this. Look at how little infrastructure is built now compared to 100 and even 50 years ago. Government used to represent the populations interest. Now they focus on short term financial gain.