The waves of the March 11 tsunami did not really impact Australia. But the aftershocks do – in a big way. Toyota Australia will cut production at its factory in Altona, Victoria state, in half for a whopping two months because of missing parts, says The Nikkei [sub].

Toyota’s is not alone: Ford announced today that it will cut back Australian vehicle production by 20 percent, and will lay off 240 workers. (Read More…)

The employee of a photo enforcement firm was arrested in Victoria, Australia yesterday after being accused of adjusting the speed readings in a database of photo tickets. Police believe the man identified as a 36-year-old from Craigieburn changed the date, time, speeds and other variables on a total of 67,541 red light camera and speed camera citations. The data were altered between February and March while the man worked for Serco, the private firm in charge of ticketing operations.

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The Ombudsman for Victoria, Australia accused a secretive organization known as The Brotherhood of using its influence to have speed camera and red light camera tickets canceled for its founder. Ombudsman George E. Brouwer transmitted a report to the legislative assembly Tuesday providing detail about the group’s 150 members which include state police, government officials, a member of parliament, representatives from insurance firms, financial institutions and the media.

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For most Americans, the appeal of electric vehicles is somewhat blunted by the fact that they tend to be small, European-style hatchbacks rather than large, red-blooded “American-style” sedans. But what if large, rear-drive electric sedans were developed, using battery-swap technology that could allow battery-leasing business models and instant range-extension? Might Americans rethink a few of their long-held stereotypes about EVs?

Well, the United States isn’t the only nation facing this dilemma, and unlike the US, Australia is actually doing something about it. Australian automotive suppliers, Air International, Bosch, Continental and Futuris, have teamed up with Project Better Place to develop seven “proof of concept” Holden Commodore-based rear-drive electric sedans that could be the first of their kind [press release here in PDF] in a joint venture called EV Engineering. The project is part of Australia’s effort to revamp its automotive industry by 2020.

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Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia today announced that the Australia-based toll road giant Macquarie and the asset management firm Carlyle Group would spend $300 million to dominate the red light camera and speed camera business.

“The proposed acquisition of Redflex by the consortium will be by way of a scheme,” Redflex stated in its announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange. “The scheme is subject to certain conditions including Redflex shareholder and court approval, regulatory approvals and other conditions that are usual for a transaction of this nature.”

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A recent report from High Road Auto Research [full report in PDF here] finds that

It has been consistently found that the higher a vehicleʼs travel speed (even when driving at or under the legal limit), the greater the focus of the driver on their surroundings. The increased perception of danger triggers an increased endocrine reaction within the brain. This, in turn, forces the individual to play closer attention to objects in motion around the vehicle. Even relatively small changes in vehicle speed can result in substantial increases in spatial acuity and response time.

On the surface the report seems to be trading in truisms: after all, who would argue that higher speeds don’t trigger faster stimulus responses in drivers? But how does that apply to the real world of highway safety legislation and speed limits?

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TTAC tipster Sydney (of combustionchamber.net) says he saw this bowtie-branded version of what appears to be a Holden Commodore Series II on his “local NBC affiliate,” and snapped this picture. He writes

It has features from the Series II Commodore and though the picture is kind of grainy, I can assure you that it looks complete and not digitally enhanced in any way, including the bulges on the bumper strike face, which don’t appear to have translated that well from the photo I snapped of my TV. Also, the car is clearly Left Hand Drive.

Did he and a local TV station accidentally bust the embargo on this much-hyped “return of the G8″?

UPDATE: No, this is not an official image. The TV station simply ran footage of what we believe to be a forum photoshop. Higher quality image here. Know the source of this photo? Let us know!

A candidate for the New South Wales, Australia Legislative Council is staking out a bold, pro-motorist agenda. David Leyonhjelm hopes to win a seat in the parliament’s upper chamber in the upcoming March 26 election on behalf of the Outdoor Recreation Party. The group’s platform stands for a removal of government restrictions on enjoying the use of public land for recreational purposes, including driving.

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GM’s troubled Australian division Holden has maintained its place in the GM empire for years now as the development center for GM’s global rear-drive architecture. The Holden-developed Zeta platform began as the basis for Holden’s Commodore full-size sedan, and has been put into use on a global basis by cars as diverse as the Chevy Camaro, the Chinese-market Buick Park Avenue and the Pontiac G8. But now GoAuto reports that the next-gen Commodore could be moved to Holden’s plus-sized version of the Epsilon II midsized front-drive chassis known as “Super Epsilon II,” the platform that will underpin the next Chevy Impala and the Cadillac XTS. The era of the Aussie RWD sedan may well be coming to a close…

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Motor Trend gets three GM sources to confirm the return of the Pontiac G8 (Holden Commodore) to the North American market… only this time it’s coming as a Chevy. One exec even brags

We have a good name for it…

…and no, it’s not “Impala.” Nor is this simply a civilian version of the Caprice police model, which is based on the long-wheelbase version of the Zeta platform. This will be a limited-numbers affair and V8-only, reports MT, because currency fluctuations have made shipping cars from Australia more expensive. Should GM even be messing around importing the the Antipodean Driving Machine? The numbers might say no, but the fanboys are already screaming “hell yes” (or, more accurately “what about an El Camino ute version?”). Check out Michael Karesh’s reviews of all three versions of the Pontiac G8 (you can even read Liebermann’s Take Two on the GT if you must), and let us know what you think of the return of the G8.