Toyota to stop making cars in Australia, follows Ford and Holden Rick Wallace and John Ferguson The Australian February 10, 2014

TOYOTA has announced it will cease making cars in Australia in 2017, blaming the cost of manufacturing and the high dollar.
Toyota announced the closure of its Altona plant this afternoon and was briefing workers on the withdrawal. The company has been making cars in Australia since 1963.
Toyota’s move follows the decisions of Ford and Holden to quit manufacturing in Australia by 2016 and 2017 respectively.
It means that from 2017, Australia will not have a local car manufacturing industry.
Toyota’s closure is expected to cost 2500 employees their jobs.
“This decision will change the face of industry in Australia forever,” said Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane, who added that Toyota had made no request to Canberra for financial assistance.
Tony Abbott said the government was focused on ensuring a strong economy and that the number of new jobs outweighed the number of closing jobs.
“Nothing that I say can limit the impact of this devastation and disappointment today (but) there will be better days in the future,’’ the Prime Minister told reporters in Canberra.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said seeing Toyota follow Holden and Ford out the door was a disgrace.
“The car industry has died under the Abbott government,’’ he told Network Ten.
Together with the Holden and Ford closures, it will leave tens of thousands of jobs in the balance in the automotive component sector, which employs more than 30,000 workers.
Toyota said it would become a national sales and distribution company.
This means that local manufacturing of the Camry, Camry Hybrid and Aurion vehicles, as well as the production of four cylinder engines, will end by 2017.
Toyota said in a statement: “The decision was not based on any