Again missing the point. I was using the apprentice as an example of a new person to the workforce. Of course there is extra hardship. He now has to save for an extra say 5 years on what he normally would have just to get a deposit. All the while having to pay extra electricity prices just to fund your solar panals. To him it would seem you are part of the privileged few.
I'm not defending Labor, I'm pointing out Joe Hockey's hypocrisy in saying "relax, everything's fine" six months ago and saying "you'll all have to get used to lower standards of living" now. And I'm not just talking about the mining tax either. Norway's $800 billion sovereign wealth fund holds about AUD$155,000 for every man, woman and child in Norway. They made a 5% return on equity last quarter, but average that out to 5% per annum over the long term and that's nearly $8,000 a year extra for everyone in the country. The Norwegian fund also soaks up the excess cash from oil sales so they avoid the whole "two-speed economy" issue we've got here that's killing manufacturing and screwing over everyone who's trying to export anything other than coal and iron ore. There are maybe a handful of politicians in this country capable of thinking beyond the current election cycle to secure our financial future and Joe Hockey isn't one of them. Labor wanted to spend the money. The Liberals didn't even want to save it. We only get to sell this stuff once. Are you absolutely sure we're selling it for the best possible price?
Sorry when did he say "relax everything's fine" Hockey has been harping on about government debt for 5 years, and rightly so.
Talk of the mining boom being over has been around since before Gillard's term as PM. You seem to be implying the "relax everything's fine" thing is about debt...so I'll get it straight it's about Mining, even though this seems to be a discussion about debt? No one's being saying "relax everything's fine" with mining since the economy-shrinking Mining Tax was put before parliament - 2 years ago. Please find me a quote from Hockey paraphrasing "relax everything's fine" in context about mining from 6 months ago and I'll change my mind.
No BigA.D. You weren't trying to do that at all. You were specifically trying to insinuate that labor's whole premise for the mining tax was to use the money to put away for a rainy day and earn income on it. That's a straight out lie. Your comments here are also the first time I've ever heard of Hockey saying "everything is just fine". Please a link to what you are on about would be helpful. Norway is THE only economically sustainable Nordic country (actually any full socialist country other than Kuwait) any that is solely because of huge oil revenue to population base. The money isn't invested into the fund to stop them having a two speed economy, it's smartly there to provide passive income to fund their ridiculous social schemes, without which they would not be sustainable. Although it may have the same effect. We don't have a two speed economy because the mining sector is holding down manufacturing etc because it isn't. Manufacturing sector is holding itself down with the help of both sides of politics making Australian labor/manufacturing uncompetitive. One has simply gone ahead while one has gone backwards, not one holding the other down. Are we selling it at the best possible price? I'm not sure. Do you have evidence that someone is offering more for our coal and iron ore and we are taking a haircut? Are you suggesting we should manipulate the market and try to arbitrarily inflate the price of coal? Do you like putting our only major productive sector in our economy out of work, while we seek to manipulate prices? On a product that will be obsolete LONG before we have exhausted it's easily accessible deposits? You're right, we only sell this stuff once. With you in charge I am 100% sure it wouldn't get sold at all.
Hi all, here is the article that this topic is about. Credit goes to TheEnd for providing the scanned copy of the article.
Thanks for scanning the article. I have to disagree with the author's last comment however as for some of us the last 10 years were not a joy ride. Not everyone benefited from the mining boom. In fact house prices increased astronomically. Greedy boomers with existing investment properties were the big winners. I'm also worried when i hear phrases such as "work smarter" and "productivity must rise". These bandied about phrases are euphemisms for "work longer hours, for less pay, worse conditions and you have to wait even longer to access your super". The Libs no doubt will have a hard time fixing Labours mess.
Yes Byron.....Business's did this back in GFC 1....I remember hearing on the news that business's were squeezing more and more out their workers because times were tough....... Was speaking to my dad the other day, He's 63, been thru cancer treatment which took 9 months off work and he's worked extreemly hard his whole life......One of he'sate died at 55 trying to do the same ......He's now been told to start at 6.45am not 7.00am anymore and then work until 4.00pm, no overtime payed.....Uniforms not supplied anymore, no overtime on saturdays like a few years ago.....At least he gets a fuel card and they are paying super.....They're pricing jobs at cost.......he has no other option but to keep working this job because its a specialised field and he's 63 yrs old.
