Industry
$378 million sounds like a lot of money, right? It’s a catchy headline and looks great on a Sunday press release from Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan and his colleague Greg Combet. Don’t get me wrong, their new $378 million program to foster innovation was a good start albeit several years late.
You see the press and the tech communities have been arguing for several years that the local technology ecosystem needs help…and quite frankly Deputy Prime Minister; $378 million ain’t going to cut the mustard.
There are some fundamental challenges domestic startups are facing and many of them can’t be solved with government funds alone. While chucking taxpayer funds at a problem (that is quickly firming as an election issue) might be a tempting solution, what Australia desperately needs is long-term thinking and strong leadership.
Continue reading "We need to be upstarts about our start ups" »
The Americans call it Monday morning quarterbacking, describing the self-appointed experts who stand back after the event and sagely offer their wisdom as to how a game was won or lost.
The Monday morning quarterbacks have been out in earnest in Australia the past few days gloating over the (apparent) failure of Click Frenzy, the biggest retail experiment our country has ever seen, in which some of the nation’s biggest stores tried to fight back against lethal competition from foreign-based online stores.
The fact that the website crashed unleashed a wave of ridicule and, bizarrely enough, genuine anger towards the stores themselves and the operators of Click Frenzy.
Continue reading "The frenzy to click makes us forget what matters" »
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St. Michael says:
Ah, it’s started, has it Esteban? I seem to remember you predicting a switchover to oil deals in other than US dollars would be the beginning of the end…? Read more »
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Esteban says:
Also google up “Russia China oil deal”. Apparently in September Russia agreed to sell unlimited amounts of oil to China in Yuan NOT US Dollars. China will on sell the oil to any other country also in Yuan. Iran will also be selling oil toChina in Yuan to circumvent US… Read more »
It is immodest to say I told you so. So let’s move on…
The board of the Reserve Bank has sent a clear message with yesterday’s cut to the official cash rate: it’s time to start preparing for the end of the mining investment boom, which, crucially, is going to arrive sooner than expected.
Yesterday’s board meeting was a closely watched and hotly contested affair among economists and mortgage holders alike. Three members of News Ltd’s “Shadow RBA” had tipped a rate cut, while five of the remaining six were tipping a Melbourne Cup day move.
Continue reading "Start preparing for the end of the mining boom" »
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Dandie Nicholls says:
Your <!> key is sticking. So is your <.> key. Just drop your keybopard in a busket of cold water and leave it there overnight. A good soak always fixes ‘em. Read more »
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Swamp Thing says:
Excellent (rubs hands) looking forward to all the overpaid, under-educated FIFO workers, RigPigs & sundry other scum getting all their high priced toys & Mcmansions repossessed. There will be a great whining on ‘today tonight’ and tears running down many a chubby, spray-tanned cheek. I will dance a jig in… Read more »
Today is a day to reflect on the progress made towards equality for women, but it is also a day to consider the road ahead.
We know that women are innovators who are increasingly making a serious impact in industry and in business.
This is backed up by findings of the first national survey of women business owners and female entrepreneurs released this week.
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The Badger says:
Yes Michael, The PM is allowing the miners to boom. Perhaps Hockey could show her where the levers are for the mining boom after he has found the levers for the bankers. Read more »
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Michael R says:
What’s the point when our female PM Julia Gillard is decimating the manufacturing (and finance) industry by allowing the mining boom to ramp up the dollar, and make our manufacturers uncompetitive? Read more »
Australian governments have a long history of offering taxpayers’ money to private businesses in an effort to get them to come or stay. Liberal and Country League Premier Tom Playford elevated it to an art form after 1945 when he set out to build an industrial and manufacturing base in South Australia. Tax holidays, grants, cheap land, incentives, and cheap public housing for the industrial workforces through the Housing Trust.
In fact, the use of public money to convince car-makers goes back even further. My attention was drawn to a question asked in the South Australian Legislative Council on 14 August 1935. The LCL government was asked “what steps has the government taken to encourage General Motors Holdens Limited to remain in South Australia?” The answer: “The government is much concerned about the possibility of losing that industry and is doing everything possible to retain it”.
That question and answer could describe the current decision-making process concerning both GMH and Ford. The Federal, Victorian and South Australian governments are embroiled in trying to work out just how much taxpayer money will be needed to keep both functioning in Australia.
Continue reading "Is it really worth propping up the ailing car industry?" »
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BigDaz says:
Marley, if most australians in urban areas wanted small fuel efficient cars why are there a lot of large 4wds cruising the freeways and sliding out of backstreets in the CBD? The main point I was trying to make is that australian manufactoring is taking a hit from overseas and… Read more »
Alongside coal, steelmaking has dominated the Illawarra economy for the better part of a century. The industrial landscape of Port Kembla continues to define the lives of the people that work and live in its shadow, the people that I represent in the federal electorate of Throsby.
When I left high school in the early eighties, the Steelers NRL team was still running around in the top flight (before merging with St George), and many of my mates took up apprenticeships with the company that sponsored the famous scarlet jersey, BHP Steel.
We were a steel city, a proud working-class town, just like our sister city of Newcastle. In many respects we still are. But just like Newcastle and in the other manufacturing regions around Australia at that time, the ground was already shifting under our feet.
Continue reading "Sacked steelworkers, we will not abandon you" »
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Karinaa says:
Hi Kyle, thanks for rdieang. I won’t speak for the environmental movement, but in my estimation they have been quite astute in the choice of target. Unfortunately, as you point out, if the goal was really to reduce carbon emissions then there are much better targets out there than the… Read more »
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acotrel says:
Aren’t BHP Billiton and Bluescope Steel effectively the same enitity? Perhaps if BHP had put something back into their Australian steel manufacturing to improve quality and efficiency, and thus competitiveness they’d have been in a better moral position to resist the Resources Rent Tax ? Have they left Australia workers… Read more »
Have you heard of Changsha, Chengdu and Chongqing? How about Wuhan or Weifang? Indeed try a little test: name seven cities in China … you can even count Hong Kong.
To my shame, I was unaware of any of these places before I set off for China last week. I was also unable to name seven Chinese cities.
As a late ring in for our Foreign Minister – who had something on even closer to his heart than China – I joined Trade Minister Craig Emerson in leading a trade delegation to China of a hundred Australian businesses.
Continue reading "A city the size of London in the middle of China" »
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icon design says:
I can look for the reference to a site on which there is a lot of information on this question. Read more »
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Karina says:
I agree with Alan Baxter, it’s “a very iinspring country”. The biggest upside to Australia for me is “quality of life”. Social stability, security, good work place and relations; All these are some of what made me get the urge to migrate from Brasil to Australia.Always at the background of… Read more »
Like anyone else, Australians are keen to pick up a bargain.
Our grocery aisles are filled with premium brand products alongside their cheaper cousins. We like to get the best deal when we’re buying an appliance, building our homes or fuelling our cars.
And let’s face it, while we all like to buy Australian made, we mostly consider the origin of products after we’ve checked the price tag. Who can blame us? We’ve all got families to feed and bills to pay. And a dollar only goes so far.
Continue reading "Don’t dump on the govt for protecting Aussie industry" »
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Sony B Goode says:
OMG I’m going to agree with acotrel. Free markets fundamentalism is as bad as nanny statism. You can’t have policies based on ideology that do not look into the systemic consequences of that policy. Free markets and liberties in general have certain implicit assumptions, when those assumptions no longer hold… Read more »
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lesley laurel says:
should we buy new south wales or queensland products? Phil Gould Says “Never trust a Queenslander” Tom Raudonikis says the trouble is that New South Wales don’t hate queenslanders enough. We should really hate them” Read more »
It’s hard to know what the live animal export industry is more concerned about.
The fact that Australian animals are being tortured in Indonesia, or the fact that Australians now know that Australian animals are being tortured in Indonesia.
I have long been opposed to the live animal export industry.
Continue reading "Spend on job creation, not overseas cruelty" »
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Ken says:
I wonder how the families of the politicians who support the export of live animals, think and feel about the issue? If they were part of my family, they would be told to walk, and never bother to come back. I would not want to know anyone who supports such… Read more »
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Harquebus says:
That is not going to last. Peak oil mate, peak oil. Read more »
A delegation of Australian MPs has been given permission to inspect the New Zealand apple industry - as long as they don’t go near any apple trees.
Instead, they have been invited to tour New Zealand dairy farms, according to the chairman of a parliamentary committee.
The restrictions are the latest flare-up in the battle over fire blight, an agricultural disease which could destroy entire orchards.
Continue reading "Kiwis and apples: Something is rotten at the core" »
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Paul 2.0 says:
Australia sends $8 billion worth of Aussie crap to NZ, Shane, and the reason you’ll take our Applies and like them is that if you don’t, you’ll not get your $8 billion. Do us Kiwis a big favour and junk CER, take your thieving banks, crap retail stores back home… Read more »
The carbon debate at the moment is a bit like the story of Chicken Little. Just as Chicken Little declared that the sky was falling, we’re seeing a lot of people in the business community claiming that the introduction of a carbon price will spell disaster for Australian exports, jobs and industries.
(We cheated here and went for the Hokey Pokey rather than Henny Penny. But the clip is worth a re-visit.)
BHP Billiton and Xstrata want protection on coal exports; BlueScope Steel and OneSteel want steel manufacturing exempted from a carbon price; Woodside Petroleum want LNG exports to be exempted from a carbon price. To top it off, we’ve had the Australian Workers Union declare its opposition if a single job is lost as a result of a carbon price. And the Australian Food and Grocery Council is now calling for exemptions and running the line that food prices will rise.
You would be forgiven for thinking the Chicken is right.
Continue reading "The Chicken Littles will have egg on their faces" »
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Cranky Uncle Tim says:
Yawn….such a witty and sophisticated remark If I might “plagiarise” another contributor, Hush child, the adults are taliking. Read more »
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Ryan says:
@pers: “So their predictions have been verified.” you mean like the one that we were never going to have proper rainfall again and that we had to build desal plants right away. Excuse me if I find this comment as laughable as the rest of your post that did nothing… Read more »
Have a guess how many of Australia’s top 50 companies have at their very heart a good idea.
Not mineral resources, selling other people’s goods or repackaging money in increasingly intricate ways, but an actual good idea which spawned the genesis of a new business.
It’s a pretty easy answer - none.
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Kim says:
Australia is now nothing but a bogan infested quarry, and grossly uncompetitive at doing anything but digging up dirt and shipping it to China. All innovation is dead. Every industry except mining is in a drawn-out recession. I’m a 36 year old Australian, who has been around the traps, and… Read more »
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Squeeze says:
Excellent point Hanrahan. And our industries have formed good partnerships with the likes of CSIRO through enterprises like Australian Wool Innovation. But does it take 20 million people to run a mine, a farm and some tourism and education facilities. At what point does the army of accountants, auditors, public… Read more »
WHO’D be a business owner in Australia?
With the way the Federal Government up-ends the apple cart every few months you’d have to have a thick skin, and a thick wallet, to want to have a crack at increasing the nation’s prosperity.
One of my mates runs a solar energy company - an occupation unrivalled in its capacity to guarantee you endless sleepless nights, wondering when the Federal Government will deliver its next windfall, followed by a swift kick in the guts.
Continue reading "Why Australian business needs to think on its feet" »
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Russell says:
Small business has always been heralded as the home of innovation, which is recognised by the introduction of policies for investment allowances and R & D rebates. Yet these continue to swing back and forward every year as policy settings are tweaked for financial outcomes. In some ways, small business… Read more »
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Tory says:
It’s slapstick politics! Cue Benny Hill theme. I can’t believe that the Government comes up with an idea like the solar energy rebate, which then turns out to be immensely popular (great) but so bloody popular they cut off the rebate! They should have just ridden that pony till it… Read more »
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