When pork fails

Advertisement

By Leith van Onselen

Hot on the heels of its calls to “end the age of entitlement”, the Abbott in early 2014 provided a dubious $16 million grant provided to Cadbury in Hobart.

It was revealed later that Alastair Furnival, who was at the time chief of staff to Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash, had worked as a lobbyist for Cadbury and was central to the decision to provide the company with a taxpayer grant.

However, Cadbury walked away from the $16 million grant in March 2015 because it would have had to stump up $50 million as a co-payment, which it was unwilling to do.

Today, The Australian reports that Cadbury will shed 80 jobs at its Hobart factory – 20% of its workforce – but insists that its decision has nothing to do with it walking away from the grant, and is instead all about ensuring that it remains efficient over the longer-term.

Advertisement

Chalk this one up as yet another blow to Australia’s long suffering manufacturing industry.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.