Former Ford exec named auto supplier advocate
BY TERRY MARTIN | 6th Dec 2012
A former president of Ford Motor Indonesia and 32-year veteran of Ford Australia and Ford Asia-Pacific, Mr Angove will work in consultation with local car manufacturers, fleet managers, and state and local government agencies to boost sales of Australian-made vehicles.
He will also assist small and medium-sized enterprises in the auto sector “grow, diversify and compete in new markets” and work in conjunction with automotive envoys John Conomos and Steve Bracks “to identify potential international markets and customers”.
In a statement, federal industry and innovation minister Greg Combet said the government appointed a car industry expert “who knows the Asian market, understands the supply chain and appreciates the quality and environmental performance of our locally made vehicles”.
Mr Angove’s appointment is part of the $35 million ‘Automotive New Markets Initiative’ announced in August.
As GoAuto has reported, the first round of grants under this initiative, which is a joint program between the federal government and car-manufacturing states Victoria and South Australia, were handed down late last month, with $6.5 million spread across 10 companies.
In a separate announcement today, GM Holden chairman and managing director Mike Devereux and Futuris Automotive Group chairman Bruce Griffiths will join the Gillard government’s new ‘Manufacturing Leaders Group’ charged with helping Australian manufacturing “seize the opportunities of the Asian century”.
Chaired by Boeing Australia and South Pacific president Ian Thomas, the 22-member Manufacturing Leaders Group includes representatives from business, union and research fields and was established in response to recommendations made earlier this year by a manufacturing taskforce set up by prime minister Julia Gillard.
According to Mr Combet, the group will “provide strategic advice to government build better links between industry, the research sector and government and promote improved capabilities to build more competitive firms and workplaces”.
“The leaders group will focus on major productivity challenges such as building high-performance workplaces and engage with other parts of the economy such as capital markets and the mining, resources, construction and research sectors,” Mr Combet said.
The minister said the group would bring together members with a range of the expertise to advise the government on policy settings “to ensure Australian manufacturing takes advantage of opportunities in Asia and other markets”.
ACTU secretary Dave Oliver has been named deputy chairman, while other members include Hofmann Engineering managing director Erich Hofmann, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox, AMWU national secretary Paul Bastian and CSIRO CEO Megan Clark.
Ex-officio member is the department of industry’s manufacturing division head, Mike Lawson.
Mr Devereux’s appointment to the group comes a week after he urged bipartisan support for the Australian car manufacturing industry, and called on the Tony Abbott-led federal opposition to commit to the auto sector before next year’s federal election – or risk losing it.
“I believe 2013 will be the year that Australia decides whether it wants an auto industry or not,” Mr Devereux said.
“The country needs to have contemporary long-term industry policy that is competitive with other countries, and those policy settings need to be in place for an auto industry to exist at any time in this country – pre- or post-change in government if there is a change in government.”The Holden boss also said a major new review into the automotive industry was required in order for the remaining three local manufacturers – Holden, Ford and Toyota – and its parent companies to have certainty from 2015 to 2022.
“Five years will have passed since the last (Bracks) review was released – and we need to have a more contemporary approach,” he said.
“It is a country issue, not a political issue. These are very significant times for the industry.”As GoAuto revealed exclusively in September, federal government agencies have been buying more imported vehicles than locally built cars, despite a clear fleet vehicle selection policy that has ‘Made in Australia’ as its core tenet.
State and territory government vehicle purchases outside the manufacturing bases of Victoria and South Australia are also heavily skewed towards imported vehicles, while local governments across the board favour cars built offshore.
In its announcement of Mr Angove’s appointment, the federal government chose to highlight the fact that in 2011-12, more than 72 per cent of all passenger vehicles purchased by the Commonwealth, Victorian and South Australian governments were made in Australia.
By way of contrast, it said that over the same period the figure was only 44 per cent for New South Wales, 41 per cent for Queensland, 30 per cent for Western Australia, 37 per cent for Tasmania, 36 per cent for the Northern Territory, 34 per cent for the Australian Capital Territory and 25 per cent for the local government sector as a whole.
Mr Angove returned to Australia last year after more than a decade at the helm of Ford Motor Indonesia.
He joined Ford Australia in a dealer development role in 1979, subsequently working as a regional manager, in sales planning, programs and distribution roles, fleet sales and government affairs.
His overseas assignments started in 1998 in Ford’s ASEAN office in Singapore as director of ASEAN government affairs responsible for trade programs between Ford plants within the Asian trading group.
