'Buy Australian' policy backfires

Ford and Toyota are concerned the "buy Australian cars" policy — rushed through by the Rudd Government to make up for the damaging changes to Fringe Benefits Tax — has been interpreted as "buy Holden".

Government sales for both Ford and Toyota have fallen as Holden Commodore deliveries surged by 15 per cent last month.

The two rival car-makers believe some government departments have misinterpreted the policy announced in desperation by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the lead-up to the election.

"We're concerned that some of our (government) customers may have misinterpreted the 'buy local' campaign," said Toyota Australia spokeswoman Beck Angel.

"Some of Toyota's longstanding fleet customers have expressed confusion on whether they are still allowed to buy our vehicles because of the campaign."

Sales of the Ford Falcon fell to new record lows over the past two months and the car maker, which is closing its Australian factories in 2016, had to schedule 12 production down days.

Ford spokeswoman Sinead Phipps told News Corp: "We hope the buy Australian cars policy will be evenly applied to all brands."

SA Labor Premier Jay Weatherill has been one of the most vocal advocates of the "buy Australian" policy as he tries to shore-up taxpayer support for the struggling car maker and help save the 1700 factory jobs at Holden in Adelaide and several thousand more workers employed in the surrounding supplier base.

Toyota says it will be "closely monitoring" its government sales figures to see whether there has been "any impact because of the misinterpretation".

Holden spokesman Sean Poppitt declined to comment on the "buy Australian" policy and if the company thought it had advantaged Holden.

The Rudd Government believed the FBT changes would affect "BMW drivers" but industry figures showed locally-made cars would be worst hit because of their reliance on government and fleet sales.

For example, up to 70 per cent of domestic-market Toyota Camrys are sold to government departments at Federal, State and Local Council level.

While much of the focus has been on Holden as it fights for survival, Toyota is in fact the biggest automotive manufacturer, employer and exporter in Australia, with about 2500 factory workers building more than 100,000 cars a year.

Toyota and Ford vehicles built here also have more locally-made content than Holdens, figures supplied by the car makers show.

Meanwhile the newly elected Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has vowed to reverse the FBT changes. The fleet sales and salary packaging industries have already reported a turnaround in business since the election.

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling