SA Footy

Just a poll to see peoples thoughts on the matter of companies closing shop to move to cheaper countries such as what boot company Blundstone has done my moving to Thailand and India while terminating more than 300 jobs in Hobart.

In my opinion this is not fair trade as little Johnny Puppet calls it but free trade labour. Less wages, conditions and saftey = big company wallets. I will never be buying another pair and urge more people to boycott them too.

Also former Sola Optical (now Transition Optical) which is based in Lonsdale is axing 29 jobs and relocating into Asia.

Whats next to go? Within 5 years Australia will not have any manufacturing but woopy doo da we have mining and defence.

Really I think it's time to reintroduce tariffs on cheap overseas imports but Johnny and Co are so far up the bum of big business, I can't see it happening.
Ironic isn't it that the whole system has been engineered so that the majority of people's wages are supporting big business but we now keep hearing that labor costs hear are "too high".
It's a shame we can't outsource our politicians.

I used to wear either Blundstone or Rossi work boots, but they wre both typical of work boots, functional, but not very comfortable. The along came another Australian owned, Australian made brand, Steel Blue, complete with money back comfort guarantee, recomendations from Podiatry organisations etc. etc. They are the most comfortable boot I have ever worn, and Aussie made...........until recently, the last pair I purchased (Dec 06) were made in Indonesia, unfortunatlly I will still buy them because no one else makes a boot that is nearlly as comfortable, and if I have to spend 8-10 hours a day in them, I want to be comfortable.
The really stupid part about the Govt. getting rid of tarrifs, a lot of the countries whose products we purchase, hit us with tarrifs if we want to sell our products in their country.

TroyGFC wrote:In my opinion this is not fair trade as little Johnny Puppet calls it but free trade labour. Less wages, conditions and saftey = big company wallets.

All of those things add up to a far from level playing field, you can't blame the companies for wanting to maximise profits, thats what buisinesses have to do, but little Johnny has been hell bent on getting rid of tarrifs, if it were a level playing field, that may have been alright, but it never has been, and most likeley never will, the buck has to stop with him and the dribble party.

TroyGFC wrote: I will never be buying another pair and urge more people to boycott them too.

Hate to rain on your parade pinko... Pig's arse!
But you work at Mitsubishi & we get our work-boots supplied for free!
(Hope the tax man ain't reading this, coz I always claim for them anyway!)
...& besides.
Our boots are manufactured by 'OLIVER' from what I believe is a Melbourne based company.

Welcome to the 51st state my friends, LJH's capitalist paradise. I have posted many times on this site that manufacturing in this country is dead. Mitsi and others like her are on borrowed time, get upskilled and get the hell out.

regards,

REB

Reducing tarrif protection is only going to get rid of manufacturing jobs, one reason is so that the big environmental polluters will move off shore making it some other countries problem.

Yet the other thing to consider is how many factories in Australia are moving to fully automated equipment, I have a friend who is a mechanical engineer and his job is to design factory machines that replace workers and his company is flat out.

I had to get a new washing machine, so I went out and got an Electrolux made in S.A and had planned to get the same for a replacement air conditioner, yet after there recent shut down announcement I am reconsidering it. The advantage of Electolux used to be that the parts were easy to get for repairs, yet not any more.

One other thing though is I do wonder what the situation would be today if Paul Keating was still running a federal Labor government, would the tarrif situation be the same, I think so, as far as being up the Ar*e of americans go, I think that despite their rhetoric, Labor are pretty good at it as well!

Sojourner wrote:One other thing though is I do wonder what the situation would be today if Paul Keating was still running a federal Labor government, would the tarrif situation be the same, I think so, as far as being up the Ar*e of americans go, I think that despite their rhetoric, Labor are pretty good at it as well!

I should reiterate from my point of view that I realise it would all be the same no matter who was in power in this country as it is big business that rules the world, not politicians. It was under Bob Hawke's rule that most tariff's were dropped (When Keating was basically his 2IC) so no, I don't imagine things would be any different. BTW, I said that tariffs should be reintroduced, not reduced.

Look at any companies financials and 90% of expenditure goes on Salraies and Wages, so it is only natural that they are going to constantly look at cheaper ways to do things to reduce this expense......if your not increasing your Income the only way to grow is to reduce costs, dont blame the companies here...

Still havent had any siggestions on here what Little JH should do???

as said earlier,if you can see the writing on the wall so get out of the industry before it swallows your up...we all have choices

Dutchy wrote:Look at any companies financials and 90% of expenditure goes on Salraies and Wages, so it is only natural that they are going to constantly look at cheaper ways to do things to reduce this expense......if your not increasing your Income the only way to grow is to reduce costs, dont blame the companies here...

Still havent had any siggestions on here what Little JH should do???

as said earlier,if you can see the writing on the wall so get out of the industry before it swallows your up...we all have choices

Good point Dutchy. I would suggest he invests some of the budget surplus (either that or stop investing our tax dollars trying to sell us a 'work choices' package that robs us of our rights) into reskilling the Australian workforce so that when manufacturing does die in the arse it doesn't have quite the same effect on the economy of the future. The Libs have always been rated as the more responsible economic managers (a legacy of the Whitlam era for the ALP), but they seem to plump for methodologies that support short term gains such as bucking to globalisation and the privatisation of services...soon we will not own anything and we will not be making anything. In the short term it makes the economy look great but at what cost in the future? Australia the branch office..the 51st state.

But I suppose the LJH party (Der Fuerher cult) can continue to 'create' millions of temp jobs (the 20/20 of employment) just so the stats can continue to show that the Liberals have 'created' the lowest levels of unemployment in x amount of years. The budget is in the black and everyone is 'working'. Never mind that workers don't have rights anymore and soon there won't be anything left to sell. The LJH Party is a master at......getting re-elected.

regards,

REB

Rik E Boy wrote:Good point Dutchy. I would suggest he invests some of the budget surplus (either that or stop investing our tax dollars trying to sell us a 'work choices' package that robs us of our rights) into reskilling the Australian workforce so that when manufacturing does die in the arse it doesn't have quite the same effect on the economy of the future. The Libs have always been rated as the more responsible economic managers (a legacy of the Whitlam era for the ALP), but they seem to plump for methodologies that support short term gains such as bucking to globalisation and the privatisation of services...soon we will not own anything and we will not be making anything. In the short term it makes the economy look great but at what cost in the future? Australia the branch office..the 51st state.

But I suppose the LJH party (Der Fuerher cult) can continue to 'create' millions of temp jobs (the 20/20 of employment) just so the stats can continue to show that the Liberals have 'created' the lowest levels of unemployment in x amount of years. The budget is in the black and everyone is 'working'. Never mind that workers don't have rights anymore and soon there won't be anything left to sell. The LJH Party is a master at......getting re-elected.

regards,

REB

Spot on - well written.

agree REB...the absolute worst part of politics is that NO PARTY when they get power will ever look long term, and many times that is what is required...

Dutchy wrote:
Still havent had any siggestions on here what Little JH should do???

I did suggest that tariffs should be reintroduced.

I would suggest level pegging tarrifs, if there is a 30% Tarrif in Malaysia on imported furniture then there should be a 30% tarrif likewise on imported furniture from Malaysia to here.

Sojourner wrote:I would suggest level pegging tarrifs, if there is a 30% Tarrif in Malaysia on imported furniture then there should be a 30% tarrif likewise on imported furniture from Malaysia to here.

nah, that's just too sensible

..

When I was at school they taught us that Australia has the resources to be self-sufficient, but because of the way politics played out in the past, the infrastructure doesn't exist to meet that end, and it is too late to try and create it. Looks as though we are moving even further away from that economic marvel we could have once been.
51st state? It could be time to mint new currency.

therisingblues wrote:When I was at school they taught us that Australia has the resources to be self-sufficient, but because of the way politics played out in the past, the infrastructure doesn't exist to meet that end, and it is too late to try and create it. Looks as though we are moving even further away from that economic marvel we could have once been.
51st state? It could be time to mint new currency.

Na then I would probally throw money away if had George W Bushes mug on it!!

well we are already fastly evolving into the 51st state and have been ever since the attack on the twin towers that started the war on terrorism.

we are so americanised now that it isnt funny..........................

thankgod the poms decided to ship their convicts out to the middle of no-where 170 years ago.......................