Punch on: Open thread 25/10/2010

Jim says:

09:32am | 25/10/10

...and why is industry moving offshore? I guess being forced to pay someone $30/hour to fold t-shirts, and pay them for 1.5 hours in breaks a day, plus sick leave, super, insurance, payroll tax, etc etc, AND having to pay all that even if they are not performing (cause business owners cannot sack anyone, you know) makes it more attractive to move offshore.
As for the bigger picture…pffft. We have 3 year terms in this country. No sooner is an election won than the plans are put in place to win the next one. The only promises that have not yet been broken by this current government, are the ones not planned to come in till 2013 - after the next election.

TheRealDave says:

09:51am | 25/10/10

Business owners can’t sack anyone? Really? You may want to tell all those people who’ve been sacked due to the GFC and all other causes over the past 3 years. I’m sure they’d be delighted to hear it.

Gregg says:

04:46pm | 25/10/10

We may need to develop a new party Acotrel but then re the water stealing, moving industries, imports and dwindling hi tech just have a chat with Julia for she’ll have all that fixed.
Education is her banana she reckons and having a target of 40% of the population to get a University level education must do something for the country.
They may even be able to have FO cables carrying water from the northern tropics and that NBN is promised to deliver all sorts of productive gains and you do believe in promises don’t you?
We just beed to get the nuclear power generation up and running and she’ll [ not Julia ] be alright mate!
At least when we’re pushing up daisies and just like Joh ” Don’t you worry about that now ”

acotrel says:

10:19pm | 25/10/10

Jim, it’s easy to blame the moving of Australian industry offshore on union wage claims.  However I’d point out that Henry Ford paid his orkers 5 times the going rate, so they could afford to buy his products.  Reducing Australian wages to third world levels won’t make Australian industry more efficient, it would kill the local economy.  Also we’d have the mortgage crash which has been hanging over our heads like the sword of Damocles. We need to look for a win-win strategy, and the situation where a combination gives a multiple advantage.

Reg says:

11:53am | 25/10/10

Can’t talk right now MarK, Too busy vetting the questions to be put to John tonight on Q&A. Watch for the seven second delay edits.

We think we’ve covered all eventualities, high chair and seat-belt, good eye-line, even his falling face first in his porridge. We’ve detected all the steaming Lefties but there’d be no show without Punch and we’ve got our collective eyes on the floor manager who we think is really Lucy moonlighting.

Jim says:

10:15am | 25/10/10

Greg Combet - ever so delusional. Suggesting union grubs bring along their terrified toddlers to the picket lines to make for more dramatic TV footage. Guess those buring cars in Singleton weren’t enough hey…

fairsfair says:

12:55pm | 25/10/10

tut tut Jim, your forgot to spell ‘grubs’ in all caps. You will have fired him up now.

TheRealDave says:

02:33pm | 25/10/10

Lets be fair, they were only wharfies and their kids being trampled. Have at them I say - as a long term Labor voter. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of inbred arseholes.

acotrel says:

10:40am | 25/10/10

Jules, every good conman must return to the scene of their crime to find out whether their garbage has really been believed by the intended victim.  The programme could really become interesting if someone perceptive really takes Howard to task over his devious ways!
I’ll be watching it in the hope that he gets a w ell-deserved kick up the backside.

MarK says:

10:41am | 25/10/10

That’s the way.

If you ignore something you can keep up your fantasy of righteous indignation.

Even better lets just ban, cut and censor anything to do with stuff yiu don’t like. Don’t want the kids growing up with ideas of anything different do we.

I applaud your progressive mindset.

JulesG says:

12:47pm | 25/10/10

Alcotrel: Good one! On reflection I might watch it.

MarK: It’s more than indignation. I’m stark, raving bloody angry and totally pissed off that this right wing lunatic did so much harm to our lovely country. I certainly don’t want my kids anywhere near this idiot. I’d ban the whole LNP if I could.

Reg says:

12:01pm | 25/10/10

Yeah they learned a lot about engines after Rolls-Royce gave them a decent engine for the P51 back during the war.

Jim says:

12:22pm | 25/10/10

They look great…can’t beat CAT in the heavy vehicle department. What engine would they be putting in if not their own?

fairsfair says:

12:44pm | 25/10/10

My dad has always said “Caterpillars may break down but the rest break up”. Particularly on minesites, I think that is true. He has a couple of CatFifteens that he has restored (I think like 1929 or something) and they don’t miss a beat. Pretty amaxing little dozers. What are they putting in them?

stephen says:

12:51pm | 25/10/10

From memory, American sourced Northstar engines.
Mining equipment is what Caterpillar is concentrating on after they looked at the market and shut down their truck components.
A long time ago i was storeman for a firm called Morgan equipment (Clarke and Demag stuff), and Caterpillar’s reputation for excellence was apparent even then.

acotrel says:

05:10pm | 25/10/10

Well Lee, it goes like this.  If a Labour government wants a loan from the Arabs - that’s bad.  If the Singaporeans want to own a bit more of us - that’s good.  If the Chinese want to own a bit more of us - that’s bad.  If the Americans want to own a bit more of us - that’s good.  If the Japanese want to own a bit more of us - that’s so-so.  You’ve got to know who your friends are in this world! The question is about in whose board room the decision is made about who is our friend?