Manufacturing
The announcement by Toyota of several hundred job losses this week is certainly alarming and it will have had and will continue to have ramifications for the broader industry.
But it will only mark the end of the industry if we as a society say we don’t want manufacturing and we are happy to simply be China’s quarry and maybe a second tier tourist destination.
In all the hyperbole and wild statements we hear about our mining industry, we rarely hear some of the uncomfortable truths. That it’s only 9 per cent of the economy, that it is the cause of the high Australian dollar which is putting pressure on our manufacturers and farmers, and that, at its best, it really only represents the highest aspirations of the average third world dictator.
Continue reading "A bloody good reason to subsidise car making" »
The Australian economy is in danger of being torn apart by the resources boom.
The high prices being paid for our minerals, the unprecedented foreign investment to dig up those minerals and the rising value of the dollar are already reshaping our economy. This is only the beginning.
It will end, all booms do, but this one will take some time and it will bring great change.
Continue reading "The carbon tax won’t kill the economy, greedy miners will" »
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john says:
Somebody tell Greg Smith he didn’t run as the ALP candidate for New England Idiots abound and conservative fanboys are liars because that’s all they have. Read more »
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Labor is Toxic says:
You get what you vote for Joan. In saying this, the Labor Party is so hated in the Electorate of New England that they did not have a candidate in the electorate for the 2010 election. And who did Windsor give power to???? It would be so bad if they… Read more »
Jobs are being lost, buildings are closing; hundreds of people are moving overseas.
Australian manufacturing is facing a major slump, with thousands more jobs expected in light of the carbon tax policy - especially in places like the La Trobe Valley in Victoria.
According to recent research from the Australian Trade and Industry Alliance, less than nine per cent of the one million manufacturing workforce are employed by firms that will receive compensation for the carbon tax.
Continue reading "One green job created, 3.7 jobs destroyed elsewhere" »
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James says:
How about looking at off-shoring of jobs, lack of government regulation and rampant corruption in the finance “industry” for the real reason why unemployement in the US is so high. If green jobs are so bullshit why is Germany, with a large green bloc in government and strong green jobs… Read more »
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RyaN says:
@old fart: neither, clearly you have misinterpreted what he said. Keep flogging that ole horse there though, its funny as hell to watch you commies squeal like pigs. Read more »
“Dead, buried, cremated,” Tony Abbott decreed theatrically of WorkChoices amid a shaky start to his 2010 election campaign.
It turned out it was a mere hiccup compared to the spectacular Cabinet leaks on the Government side which scuttled Julia Gillard’s credibility. She has never really recovered.
But the mere fact that a resurgent IR debate scared him witless says much about the history of this issue and the scars the 2007 defeat left.
Continue reading "Abbott may need to revive dead, buried IR policy" »
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moreinfo says:
party poker bonus code Party poker bonus code partypoker bonus code reload Read more »
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taxslave says:
Howard was throw out because of a number of things .Workchoices was one. It forced peoples wages down. Try and compete with Chinese manufacturers ,impossible .This will never happen .I heard of employees that were paid $5 an hour to work including weekends no overtime payments at all.I can never… Read more »
By many counts, Australia’s economic position is to be envied by the world. Assuming the Gillard government can deliver on its promise, there will be a surplus for the 2012-13 budget. We are experiencing historically high terms of trade: importing on the cheap while exports sell high.
Unemployment is only a touch over 5%. Our dollar has overtaken the US Greenback. We have the second lowest public debt (proportional to our GDP) in the industrialised world. And If you’ve listened to Treasurer Wayne Swan open his mouth in the last 6 months, you’ll know that our economy’s “fundamentals are strong”.
It may surprise some therefore, that I would suggest that this is no time for complacency about our future. Indeed, our position is more precarious that one might initially think. For there’s another side to the Australian story: lopsided growth, struggling non-resource exporters, depleting natural resources, coming challenges of an ageing population and climate change, and a vulnerability to oscillating commodity prices. Considering these factors, it is best that the orthodox optimism surrounding our economic future be taken with a grain of salt.
Continue reading "Australia must have a sovereign wealth fund" »
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Joombi O'Flaherty says:
Or perhaps an opposition with the balls to block the increase in the debt ceiling, seeing as it’s against their platform Read more »
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Dicko says:
My bullshite meter just busted reading some of these comments. Of course we need a sovereign wealth fund other wise our descendants will be left with a great big empty hole in the ground, an empty bank account, and all of the good bits of the country owned by overseas… 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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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 »
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RyaN says:
Here is a question that has been floating around in my head with regards to the top polluters moving their operations offshore as predicted. If these companies move their operations offshore before the carbon tax kicks in next year does that mean they will still receive the promised compensation if… Read more »
It is not often that you wake up on a Saturday in Sydney and have a choice of rallies to attend – but this is exactly what happened last week.
In case you missed it, the two rallies were organised in support and opposition to the proposed “price on carbon” strategy put forward by the Federal Government.
Being excited by a bit of political expressionism in a city where Saturday morning priorities are usually shopping and cappuccinos, I decided to attend not just one but both.
Continue reading "To manufacture fortunes we need contentious ‘taxes’" »
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Cate P says:
People in long queues. “We’re moving forward, we’re moving forward”. Read more »
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eye4aneye says:
James I wish I could say your a tool - then at least you would have a use. Read more »
Put the shopping basket down and step AWAY from the dairy aisle. Admit it. You were about to buy the $1 milk weren’t you?
Why? Well, as the insidious Coles jingo bleats: “Because We All Buy Milk!” You were about to save a whole 75 cents a litre.
But you were also falling for one of the dirtiest tricks in supermarket history – a trick which is possibly threatening the viability of a major Australian industry.
It all started, ironically, on Australia Day, but let’s look at the aftermath.
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Rosana says:
It seems that if the SA Government had noticed the rleust of what had happened to Ireland after their plastic bag ban, they would have learned that all the plastic bag ban does is increase the sales of bin liners.Its seems illogical that the SA Government would choose to get… Read more »
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You’ve got to wonder how genuine Union boss Paul Howes’ latest headline-grabbing attempt to put himself centre-stage really is.
He’s launched the “Don’t Dump on Australia” campaign, ostensibly on behalf of his union members, to encourage people to protest Australia’s ineffective anti-dumping laws.
Fair enough. But the question is – why doesn’t he just get on the phone to the woman he installed as PM? Why doesn’t he remind Julia that he knifed Kevin to get her there and, after all, this is the year “of decision and delivery”.
Continue reading "Howes will dump on anyone, except for Gillard" »
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jf says:
Neither Tony Abbott nor his party have been in Government for the last two terms. Read more »
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Christian Real says:
Julie Bishop, with her sometimes stone facial expression reminds me a little of Margaret Thatcher,the former English Prime Minister. Given the chance,the backing and support I think that Julie Bishop would adapt to the Leadership role of the Liberal Opposition Party very well indeed. Sophie Mirabella,you might even make a… Read more »
To some Australians the high dollar is cause for celebration.
A great way to pick up a bargain over the internet or a cheap holiday overseas. But for many, including 100 workers at Caterpillar in suburban Melbourne last week, it means watching your industry become less competitive and suddenly finding yourself out of a job.
The cause of the high dollar is Australia’s mining boom.
Continue reading "A high dollar carries an even higher price" »
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Ray says:
I’m sorry! Its just impossible to take anything that Dave Oliver says seriously. This is the union boss that openly had a voodoo doll of one of the female amwu organisers. This man has no idea how to treat his own workforce. His is a terrible union full of bullies… Read more »
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The Badger says:
Did all you Australian workers out there see what Steve thinks of your work ethic? “the Aussie workforce is more or less a bunch of bludgers” aussie worker, do you thing you are a bludger? Do you think you do a fair days work for a fair days pay? Read more »
Several years ago scientist David Suzuki observed that humans have an innate need to be connected with nature, even if it’s only a nearby park or a tree in the backyard.
Australians, who have always expressed nature as part of their national identity, are manifesting this observation more than ever before.
In a recent study looking at a range of social issues related to modern living a surprisingly high number of participants reported growing their own vegetables or herbs at home.
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Bob H says:
@Gordon (the Garden Gnome) - Your Garden has become a tool for media fashionistas, I bet your garden was previously an house extension fashion statement complete with scatter cushions. The recent craze for planting veggies and housing chickens(no snake problems then) is the latest in Gardening fashion trends to be… Read more »
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Sloth says:
Again, this is precisely the problem with non-lawyers attempting to tell people what the law is. Indeed, this is unsurprising; the vast majority of actual lawyers can’t get it right, what hope does the general population have? Nevertheless, the Food Act (WA) does contain a definition of sale. That definition… Read more »
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