ADVANCE caused a bit of a stir over the weekend thanks to this post on x.com.

This is what they took from us. pic.twitter.com/Cy43Q68WXX

— ADVANCE (@FairAusADV) September 26, 2025

For some reason, a light-hearted post (albeit with a serious intent) about the fact that we don’t make anything in Australia anymore made a lot of activists and elites very upset.

They said it’s fetishising muscle cars, calling us economically illiterate, and some nonsense about how the suburbs have changed and that’s why Australian made cars are bad.

Quite a few people also suggested it was “our” fault because the car industry was shuttered under the last Coalition government. 

Newsflash: we are not the Liberal party and we have never been afraid to criticise them when they get things wrong.

All that said, we should reiterate just as we did in the context of Andrew Hastie’s original video about manufacturing that this isn’t about cars specifically.

This is about our overall manufacturing capacity and the fact that the rush to Net Zero has made energy too expensive for a lot of on-shore industry to be sustainable.

But the critics of our post are also themselves being entirely unserious about the economics of the car industry and manufacturing more generally.

In fact, they’re being dishonest.

When the car industry was shut down, it was estimated the subsidies provided totalled about $7 billion since 2001. In 2013 it was revealed that Holden alone had received $2.17 billion in government assistance.

That might seem like a lot, but that’s almost pennies compared to what the government is, right now, spending on Net Zero and climate policies.

According to the IPA, the government is spending $9 billion on “programs related to, or focused on, climate change and net zero” each year.

Meanwhile, just today, The Australian revealed modelling that shows the cost of rolling out renewable energy on the scale required to meet Net Zero will cost a whopping $1.3 trillion.

That’s trillion with a T.

And don’t forget that most of that money is going out the door and across the sea to the Chinese and Indian companies who make the solar panels and wind turbines.

A couple of billion so we can build machines on-shore again doesn’t seem so bad in comparison.

But really, whether we restart the car industry or not is beside the point.

What’s going on here is these left-wing ex and current journos who think we’re out of touch and economically illiterate don’t care about government subsidies when it’s for a cause they like.

They are happy for the government to burn money at the altar of Net Zero, but make no mistake, they will be protesting in the streets if a single cent goes to working class Aussie jobs.

They do not understand the conversation we are having and the values we are fighting for.

This is a game to them, and dunking on ADVANCE gives them a little thrill.

But we’re in this to win and to make our country stronger and more prosperous.

And that’s what makes them angriest of all.