Hockey told ABC radio this morning that the Coalition would not have secured its recent free trade agreements if the government hadn’t presided over the demise of local car manufacturing. (He’s quite correct on that point, but I doubt Australian car workers currently in the process of being retrenched will appreciate the fact they have been sacrificed in order for Australia to lock down an FTA with China and Korea.) The treasurer was quite clear this morning that was the transaction – there would have been no free trade agreements if we hadn’t made the hard decisions on industry assistance at the beginning of the year.