I apologise in advance as the first part of my reply is background and
might not seem relevant to trams. However, it feeds in critically.

Steel making, heavy and light industry, clothing and footwear, electronics,
are all more expensive in Australia. As such, people have done the
economically "rational" thing and sent them overseas.

However, all of those are essential defence industries.

We now have many of the people who sent those industries overseas now
wailing about war with China and wanting to spend hundreds of billions on
weapons.

Presumably, if they really are serious, then bringing back strategic
defence industry ought to be something they support.

Which means that there ought to be a lot more support for the design and
construction of trams, trains, buses locally as part of a reconsidered
approach to defence. Of course, that presupposes that the concerns about
China are genuine, and not just a cover for buying military toys.

I say this as the amounts spent on defence are huge. If we really are
serious about China, then spending money on local tram/train production to
support defence capability is really cheap in the long term.

On Wed, 29 Mar 2023, 10:13 am Matthew Geier, matthew@...>
wrote:

> On 29/3/23 10:29, Mal Rowe wrote:

> > It's more than a decision to keep money at home.

> >

> > The decision to go for the E and G classes in Melbourne was based on

> > hard learnt lessons about getting a tram that is 'fit for purpose'.

> >

> >

> I'm sure Alstom's factories in Spain or India would have turned a G

> class to the exact same design if the contract had not specified 'local

> content'.

>

> Bombardier could have built the E in European or Asian factories for

> less. It was a conscious political decision to specify 'local content'.

> Although the 'local content' on that latest build of trains seems to be

> some one what marginal - shipping in complete body shells fabricated in

> China doesn't really count IMHO. The local content appears to be

> 'assemble a kit from overseas sourced components and sub systems.

>

> Export our Iron ore and coal to China, get a complete body shell back.

>

> And when the body cracks, we then find we have no local skills needed to

> repair it as their was no ongoing employment for welder/fabricators so

> no one apprenticed to the trade.

>

> At any rate even the new G class is basically a 'kit' using standard

> modular designs from existing platforms. It just has a few

> 'optimizations' for Melbourne's use case.

>

>

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