Why Are We Doing This To Ourselves?

[sixfan]

Bring on the mining boom.

I've seen two industry downturns where vast numbers of my mates were made redundant.

Some of us stuck it out and now Geo's are getting paid a ransom.

[Ninka]

Well as being one from the mining industry I would just like to put a little balance into the statements about adding value to the raw material. Aside from labour one of the biggest costs is power e.g. Aus has the world's largest  reserves of bauxite which is processed into Alumina, which again Australia is the world's largest producer of, but the final step turning into Aluminium metal consumes enormous amounts of electricity and the cost of power in Aust is horrendous compared to other countries, so we end up with a few Aluminium Smelters only in places like Portland, Vic where the power is heavily subsidised by the Govt. (read you and me)!

But the good thing is we dont have all those nasty dams (with their cheap hydo power) blocking up the rivers, or many of those horrible coal fired power stations with their smelly gases and ash and heaven forbid, we dont want nuclear power. So I can only conclude all we are doing is reaping the benefits of our own choices.

I shake me head about people who lie down in the middle of the road and then complain when they get run over?

I still have that old bumper sticker.... "Ban Mining - let the bastards freeze in the dark!"

Is an old digger an proud of it 

Peter

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I'm not bagging the mining industry, quite the contrary

All I am saying is this, look at areas like Bauxite, Gold, Copper etc, where great value is added in Australia, and as a consequence many more Australians have a job.

The mineral boom is doing great things at the moment, but nothing lasts forever, and I am just concerned that we will be hit extremely hard if all our manufacturing industries disappear, and no other alternatives are developed now.

[sbr79]

Yes what saddens me, is all the wealthy people in this country will go on living their lifstyles while us middle class people start to shrivel away, and those same wealthy people sit around right now tell us to except the changes, ITs ok for them they don't face hardship, sure they might lose some money, but they sure as hell won't lose their current lifestyle, you know why, COZ the liberals in the Federal Governmet made sure of that with the IR law changes. Anyway I could go on and on, but they won't change anyones minds, not that I am trying too, but seems people are concerned about the Country as a WHOLE only when the media say we should, and when things are alright everyone just goes back to thinking about themselves.

[aussie_geo]

Bring on the mining boom.

I've seen two industry downturns where vast numbers of my mates were made redundant.

Some of us stuck it out and now Geo's are getting paid a ransom.

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Mate I know what you mean, less than 5 years ago the joke was.

"What's the difference between a large pizza and a Geologist? ...... at least the large Pizza can feed a family of four"

cheers from a fellow survivor

Peter

[cdm]

If there is a product of equal quality which is made in this country, support it by buying it 

Toyota builds the best quality cars in Australia and has the greatest local content (52% for 042L down from 56% for 380N) so why aren't we all driving them? Local content on the VE is 35% while Ford is somewhere in between as far as quality and content. Although the quality of chinese parts is of a lesser quality then domestic products it is cheaper for Expensive Daewoo to import them and have 100% then it is to purchase locally made parts.

The main competitors for the Australian automotiive industry are China, India and Thailand.

[cdm]

There are changes going on everywhere that are out of our control, I guess we just have to go with the flow

shaz

The ironic thing is that it's our current quality of life that is going to end up costing us our quality of life. More rights in the workplace, more money, overtime, allowances for everything, blah blah blah. Everything is too expensive in Australia - starting with labour.

And I was originally going to say India would be next, but changed my post.

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Indeed, it is the cost of labour (including downtime from strikes etc) that is killing the Australian automotive industry. In some cases, components are coming in from overseas (Thailand) for a landed price that is the equivelant of the local cost of material alone. I have heard a particular component supplier saying, that if they have to pick up the part at all (in the production process) then they cannot compete.

[cdm]

Yes what saddens me, is all the wealthy people in this country will go on living their lifstyles while us middle class people start to shrivel away, and those same wealthy people sit around right now tell us to except the changes, ITs ok for them they don't face hardship, sure they might lose some money, but they sure as hell won't lose their current lifestyle, you know why, COZ the liberals in the Federal Governmet made sure of that with the IR law changes. Anyway I could go on and on, but they won't change anyones minds, not that I am trying too, but seems people are concerned about the Country as a WHOLE only when the media say we should, and when things are alright everyone just goes back to thinking about themselves.

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You could always push for higher wages and less hours. And while you may be successful in the short term (due to the balance of power lying with unions in this country), don't be suprised if you end up like the Ajax employees in a few years time.

Unless of course, you are happy to pay $70 000 for your XR6T. In which case the automotive companies would have less incentive to look overseas to cut costs. However, I dare say, that if that was the case, then your $70 000 XR6T would look more like the EF-EL then the nice car it is today.

You can't have your pie and eat it too....

[cdm]

Post #25 should read:

Although the quality of chinese parts is of a lesser quality then domestic products it is cheaper for Expensive Daewoo to import them and have 100% INSPECTION then it is to purchase locally made parts

[Ninka]

Post #25 should read:

Although the quality of chinese parts is of a lesser quality then domestic products it is cheaper for Expensive Daewoo to import them and have 100% INSPECTION then it is to purchase locally made parts

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This raises another question

Is it reasonable for the government to set up trade conditions which forces a country like Australia with our hard fought high standards of living, to compete with countries where no employee protection exist, and ALL the standards we set ourselves for safety, environment etc, are all routinely breached

Maybe trade tariffs are coming down too quickly for goods from these countries

I know this is not an easy thing to fix, but something needs to be done to ensure Australia has a dynamic workplace with well educated people to take the country forward, or we will be totally dependent on countries like China, India and the like in future.

[Falchoon]

So how does the economy work in China, India etc if the workers are only getting paid a fraction of what we are in Aust? The cost of everything they buy (including food) must be next to nothing? What about housing, is it very cheap too?