The demise of manufacturing in Australia

[VMX247]

I thought you had a Labour Government who was taking care of us Aussie workers.

nil-zip-zero..
3rd year Heavy Deisel Plant Mechanic...$15.67 hr.This is just above the Aust bench mark standard.
Waitor/Hospitallity/Bar Staff $22-$25 hr   
cheers A

[Mike52]

Interesting little thing in the paper today.
Apparently Germany is on the brink and the world will end [ as we know it ] by next Sunday if they all don't sort the Euro out.

Germany is far from on the brink but they would do much better to cut the rest of the EU loose and go it alone with the UK. The problem with the common currency is it required everyone to come up the performance of the Germans.

In today's paper
Germany, Pop- 82 mill , GDP- E2.4 trill , Debt- E1.9 trill
Italy ,      ""  - 60 "     , GDP- E1.54 trill , Debt- E1.84 trill 
France ,   ""  - 64 mill ,  GDP- E1.9 trill , Debt- E1.7 trill
Spain ,     ""  - 45 mill ,  ""   - E1.05 trill , Debt- E674 bill
Greece ,   ""  - 11.2 mill , "" - E220 bill ,   Debt- E336 bill 
Ireland ,   ""  -  4.5 mill  , "" - E150 bill ,   Debt - E171 bill 
Portugal ,  "" -  10.6 mill , "" - E166 bill ,   Debt - E150 bill
All these country's are almost done.

EU asked China for a loan .

And on a different note .  WHY is premium fuel 20c a liter dearer than regular??

[mx250]

I spoke with a customer of mine last night re this and he is closely aligned to mining/hydrology at the moment travelling about Qld doing govt checks etc...
He mentioned that the 'fly-in fly-out' policy that the new mine owners are wanting is not for us , but rather to fly their own workers in from OS.
The two most vocal right now are an Indian company and a Chinese company  that have in fact completely purchased the mines in question. We will only get some royalties from the coal. They want to set up international airports on site and the hick-up is that in effect we will be giving them a complete piece of OZ to have as their own-their own customs enclave to be precise. No Aussies will be allowed on these sites, esentially they will be foreign soil-in our own backyard. The thin edge of the wedge!!
This is how this Govt. has worked out how to be back in surplus by 2013-they are selling the farm to pay their debts. FFS.

Don't mind my cynicism but you will need to name name and state some fact for me to believe this.

Sounds like the alarmist BS that the Rednecks and spin doctors 'put out there', particularly on the internet .

[motomaniac]

[/quote]
Germany is far from on the brink but they would do much better to cut the rest of the EU loose and go it alone with the UK. The problem with the common currency is it required everyone to come up the performance of the Germans.
[/quote]
In today's paper
Germany, Pop- 82 mill , GDP- E2.4 trill , Debt- E1.9 trill
Italy ,      ""  - 60 "     , GDP- E1.54 trill , Debt- E1.84 trill 
France ,   ""  - 64 mill ,  GDP- E1.9 trill , Debt- E1.7 trill
Spain ,     ""  - 45 mill ,  ""   - E1.05 trill , Debt- E674 bill
Greece ,   ""  - 11.2 mill , "" - E220 bill ,   Debt- E336 bill 
Ireland ,   ""  -  4.5 mill  , "" - E150 bill ,   Debt - E171 bill 
Portugal ,  "" -  10.6 mill , "" - E166 bill ,   Debt - E150 bill
All these country's are almost done.

EU asked China for a loan .

[/quote]

Hmmm , why are the French and Germans paying for Greece then? Seems like it should be everyman for himself and the end of the Euro experiment ( that didnt take long) .Interesting that none of the scandinavians are listed.

[IT490K1983]

WTF is going on at Qantas.

I thought the idea was to make money with the planes, not park the fekkers up. What is this f-ing country coming too. A CEO who on behalf of the board and shareholders effectively closes the door for business and gets a f#*king big pay rise. Someone in this must be on drugs. What about the effect on all of their customers, or do think that they won't loose any? Fekking idiots.   

[Mike52]

WTF is going on at Qantas.

I thought the idea was to make money with the planes, not park the fekkers up. What is this f-ing country coming too. A CEO who on behalf of the board and shareholders effectively closes the door for business and gets a f#*king big pay rise. Someone in this must be on drugs. What about the effect on all of their customers, or do think that they won't loose any? Fekking idiots.   

Two sides to every story.
The CEO runs Qantas NOT the unions.
The CEO's pay rise is a matter for the owners of the business, the shareholders.

In times past I worked as a subby for a meatworks and the unions tried this on with them.
The boss shut the factory down for maintenance for a month and sent them all home.
When the factory reopened all jobs were reappointed, except for the subbies of course .
We worked right through

I,me off to work now.
My pay has been negotiated by ME and I am happy with it , if I ever get unhappy and we can't come to an agreement then I will walk ,no need to involve the customers.

[IT490K1983]

The shutting down/closing for maintenance/standing down of staff affects all parties; THE CEO, THE BOARD, THE SHAREHOLDERS, THE STAFF and don't forget THE CUSTOMERS. I imagine many unhappy Qantas staff have "walked" and there will probably be more.
That's what I thought they were trying to do; negotiate pay and conditions. 

I have a feeling there is a lot more to this one than what we have been told so far. We even have a senior Government Minister saying that he suspects Qantas of planning this course of action as a decision such as this one would not be made overnight. 

[lyle2212]

"EML" is exactly right in what he is saying about foreign companies buying up all our minerals in the ground and trying to bring in their own labour and yes they are mainly Indian and chinese. It is not alarmist BS and redneck spindocter rumour as" MX250" seems to think. It is real !!!,and how pray tell do I know all this, well thats easy ,I work as a fly in fly out mining construction worker in WA on a mine site at Cape preston which is 1 hours drive south of Karratha. The mine site and all the Iron Ore in the ground has been bought by the Chinese,the camp was built by the Chinese even the sand and cement used in the camp footpaths is from China . They wanted to have their own International Airport on site but were told by Australia no.....They have a large contingent of Chinese labour there already, mostly engineers and the like but they laso have quite a few labourers also ,   personally I can,t stand eating in the same Mess as them as their eating habits are what we would call disgusting ,chewing their food with their mouths open while engaging in conversation is one of them. ... Yes how could the Australian Goverment allow all of this to happen you may wonder,well John Howard that snivelling little wretch of a man who should have been given a blind fold and a last cigarette before he was deposed..wanted to fence the whole mine site off and let the chinese do as they pleased...!!!!! hard to believe isn,t it folks . But I can assure you it is all true, Just contact any Union spokesman such as the CFMEU or AMWU and they will fill you in..And make no mistake about that fat arsed ranga is tarred with the same brush.  Do you lot honestly believe that any of those seat warming A-holes in Canberra give a flying F--K about the working class of Australia,if you do then you are deluded. None of them have ever done manual labour so why the hell would they care about us. As a wise man once said,   "It,s not the people who should fear Governments but the governments who should fear the people.....

[IT490K1983]

Lyle 2212 I can concur with what you are saying re Cape Preston as I was employed as the camp maintenance manager going back to 2009. The camp was running at around 1200 in size back then. I left mostly because of safety concerns and liability issues. My Management were insistant that I accept the Buildings as they were completed so that they could comply with the requirements of their $50 million a year Camp management contract. Rational, law-abiding thinking seems to go out the window when it comes to money. There were two electrocutions in camp in my short time there as well as a multitude of violations of the Australian Building Code. I have sat in meetings with Citic Pacific Contracts Managers (Aussies) who even believed in the Citic Pacific cause. I was also told that with a project of this size in China it would be acceptable to kill 6 people over the duration of construction. This view was not shared by the Aussie CPM Contracts Managers. The Donga's were shipped in from China with all neccessary fitments attached. The electrical wiring was not up to standard and each Donga was re-wired at a cost of $8 000. Someone must have looked the other way when it came to complying with the plumbing code, fire code and emergency lighting/alarm requirements. Many of the appliances/fittings did not even last 6 mths and were going to the landfill regularly. I walked away totally disollusioned from a $145 000 a year job that my employer had chased me to take on after previously leaving the company and moving interstate.

Further to the notion of manners and ettiquette, we had to cut a piece of timber to cover over the sink tops at the drinks stations in the dry mess as our International friends were spitting in the sinks. Yuk! Australians are not perfect but we don't do that sh*t.

I don't mind if someone wants to brand me racist or regressive as I have seen it from both sides. I love my country, but we are losing it. I am weary of being dictated to by policy making Politicians whose behaviour is deplorable. They remind me of my very young wayward children before they had been taught right from wrong with suitable attached consequences. These people are self seeking and are not operating in the best interests of a sustainable Australia. 

[Canam370]

It amazes me that there is so little outrage about this sort of sell-off. How dense/contemptible can the polies get?    To my mind the way to deal with people/countries is the same - treat them the way they treat you. Cant be fairer than that. If they dont like the way they get treated then they can reflect on their own rules/behaviour before complaining. Ettiquette should reflect the mores of the host country. Unfortunately Aussies believe that the world is fair and everyone plays by our ideals.......guess what, it ain't true.

[Marc.com]

These people are self seeking and are not operating in the best interests of a sustainable Australia. 

Thats Globalization for you, it has been good because everyone has made money of the deal but it comes at the price of corporations making global decisions and not being too bothered about local issue. I work for big multi national and our total direction and bonus system is based around moving operations to low cost countries, because our competition is.

[vmx42]

Are we really poor? Or are have we been conned into believing that we are badly off. Perhaps, contrary to the cries from the pollies and the vocal minorities we are better off than most.

SMH, Tuesday 1/11/2011

Australians the world's wealthiest
October 31, 2011
Despite the doom and gloom, there are reasons to be cheerful. As measured by median wealth levels, Australians are the wealthiest people in the world, says the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2011, which measured the wealth of the world's 4.5 billion adults.

It found Australia's median wealth, the mid-point between the wealthiest adult and poorest, was $US222,000 ($213,800), the highest in the world.

Average wealth was $US397,000, the world's second-highest after Switzerland with $US540,000.

Advertisement: Story continues below
It is the median figure that is more meaningful because it says more about how a country's middle class is doing.

Wealth in Australia is more evenly distributed than in other countries, particularly compared to the US, which has median wealth of about $US53,000.

As Credit Suisse measured wealth in US dollars, the strength of the Aussie dollar has helped push Australia up the rankings.

But even after removing the currency affects, Australia's performance has been robust, particularly since 2000, the report says. The report also says Australian wealth is highly skewed towards real estate assets.


Now if this is true, perhaps we can afford to support local industries and actually turn things around. Or continue to buy overseas and complain about the continuing decline...

[Mike52]

Are we really poor? Or are have we been conned into believing that we are badly off. Perhaps, contrary to the cries from the pollies and the vocal minorities we are better off than most.

SMH, Tuesday 1/11/2011

Australians the world's wealthiest
October 31, 2011
Despite the doom and gloom, there are reasons to be cheerful. As measured by median wealth levels, Australians are the wealthiest people in the world, says the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2011, which measured the wealth of the world's 4.5 billion adults.

It found Australia's median wealth, the mid-point between the wealthiest adult and poorest, was $US222,000 ($213,800), the highest in the world.

Average wealth was $US397,000, the world's second-highest after Switzerland with $US540,000.

Advertisement: Story continues below
It is the median figure that is more meaningful because it says more about how a country's middle class is doing.

Wealth in Australia is more evenly distributed than in other countries, particularly compared to the US, which has median wealth of about $US53,000.

As Credit Suisse measured wealth in US dollars, the strength of the Aussie dollar has helped push Australia up the rankings.

Now if this is true, perhaps we can afford to support local industries and actually turn things around. Or continue to buy overseas and complain about the continuing decline...

Wonder if the figures include your house.

[lyle2212]

We all know that Interest rates rise when the economy booms. As we can see now they have not risen in quite a while. That is because although the Mining sector of the country is going hammer and tongs, not everybody is employed in the mining industry. Therefore we still have quite a high unemployment rate considering how well off we are all supposed to be according to world statistics blah blah blah... Those people who make the sacrifice of working away from their families in the Mining Industry in order to give their families a good lifestyle and secure a good retirement package will reap the benefits. ... Unfortunately not everyone has the skills or contacts to do so.
I have travelled and worked overseas in some 3rd world countries and I,ve seen what people have to do to survive there. That is why I never take my Country and lifestyle for granted. But it never ceases to amaze me the amount of people with whom I associate and work with who do..

[Nathan S]

The specific reference to real estate prices suggests yes.