Car industry ‘needs a big vision’

THE future of the Australian car manufacturing industry is dependent on continuing positive policy settings by the Government and would benefit from a “big vision” for the country, according to a former director of design at GM Holden.

Phillip Zmood, the 37-year Holden veteran who was the first Australian to be appointed design director at Fishermans Bend, said the industry had a future in niche products such large rear-wheel-drive cars, “but it is going to be tough”.

And he stressed that the way the industry had been set up – no tariffs and open slather for imports – meant having large export markets was a given for survival.

This could put the industry at the mercy of other countries and their currency and trade policies.

Mr Zmood was chief designer for the Torana range from 1969 through the 1970s, and was responsible for the GTR-X show car that stunned motor show crowds around the country in 1970.

He also designed Australia’s first hatchback, the LX Torana, which found immortality at Bathurst in the hands of Peter Brock.



Left: Former Holden design director Phil Zmood (right) with RMIT curator Ian Wong.

Mr Zmood said industry policy would play a significant role in how the industry evolved.

“A lot of it is wound up with the politics of the country,” he said. “They are inseparable. You can’t have (an industry) without (political support).

“If you have the ‘big vision’, my answer would be yes, there is a great future for the industry.”But promoting that vision could make you a target, he said.

“Politically, I think it is obviously a very touchy point to espouse a vision of the future because it can be turned against you,” he said. “In the past it was a positive.”Mr Zmood, a grandson of Russian immigrants who arrived in Melbourne in 1910, said that when he was growing up, the federal government not only espoused a big vision, but also used it to create a sense of optimism across the country.

“When I was a young person, to support that big picture, they were doing the Snowy Mountains Scheme, with lots if immigrants coming in” he said.

“As I grew up, I was educated in the big vision.

“The government and leaders of the country are not setting out a plan, an agenda to engage young people.”“Yes, visions can change for a number of reasons, but if we had a global vision, like we had when I was young person, you wouldn’t have thought about it other than be optimistic. “He said, these days, there appeared to be more lobbies – and more fear – involved in the political process.

“If you have lobbies in this country that don’t have the same vision, or are scared of the big vision, then they retard the risks (businesses) are prepared to take.”Mr Zmood said the way slight shortcomings or oversights were pilloried these days worked to discourage formulation of a big picture.

“Having to be technically and politically correct doesn’t always engender the sort of (optimistic) atmosphere that was around when I was young.

“Some will say I sound like an old fart living in the past, but I was a young person once and I aspired to do things. I am still trying to do things,” he said, referring to his Euro Design Associated design consultancy.

Mr Zmood said that, if policies changed, businesses would adapt.

“Businesses and businesses. They are going to find the best way to make a profit. They’re not charities,” he said.

“But car-makers can definitely be a force for good in the wider industrial community.

“They provide important benefits to other manufacturers and for Australia in offshore markets.

“It is vital to retain support for the industry because of the spin-off it provides in terms of what it has done for education in design and other areas has been phenomenal.

“If you look around the world at the number of Australians working internationally, proportionally we are pretty high up there for such a small nation and that wouldn’t have happened, I don’t believe, if it wasn’t for the car industry.

“I’m sure the state and federal governments are well aware of this.”