<If only Australians would bye more Australian content, it would benefit us greatly.>

One way to get more out of the mining boom is use it as a means of training more Australians. Sadly, the government has squandered this opportunity by allowing mining companies to source more of their labour from overseas. An extra tax will provide nowhere near the benefit of a more highly skilled workforce.

It is also an ideal time to cut immigration, as there would be plenty of demand for the skilled workers thus displaced from the Ponzi economy.

fester. it's hard to know what you are on about, Train more Australians, where are these more Australians going to come from. Cut immigration, and what. We have skilled shortage, because the youth are still at school training to be pen pushers. Fly in fly out workers, they are not tradies, just people that drive around in utes all day. Go to the towns in the WA and just hope you do not need a mechanic, there aint any, they all work for the mines. Mechanics, electricians, welders, turners.
All you will find in towns are impostors. Do not go there

<where are these more Australians going to come from.>?

Why, from the Ponzi economy of course. There is a large skilled labour force there which could easily meet the needs of the mining industry.

<Cut immigration, and what. We have skilled shortage>

Not at all. What of all the skilled workers building the infrastructure for a growing population? This opportunity will not be available when the boom is over. Look at the massive public debt and the myriad of other problems resultant from the immigration driven Ponzi economy. Continuing to stoke it makes little economic sense.

*There is a large skilled labour force there which could easily meet the needs of the mining industry.*

Fester, alot of these people have absolutaly no intention of heading
out into the heat, the dust and the flies. They want the cushy
city life.

I had a bloke from Perth deliver some gear the other day. He lasted
just a few days in a mining town. His wife could not hack it,
they packed up and left and had to borrow thousands to do so.

No money or training will get these people to change their minds.
They are so conditioned to city life, they simply can't cope in
the bush

Yabby

I'm pointing out the fact that when you try to solve a skills shortage with immigration, you create the need for many more skilled workers to build the infrastructure for them, and generate a large public debt in the process of building that infrastructure. The alternative is to train people for whom the infrastructure has already been built.

What happens if you cut immigration? Who can know all the consequences? I can only suggest that there is a large and highly skilled labour force that would become available. But with the Ponzi economy chugging along, you dont see them.

Fester, I agree with you that we should be training more people.
But its a bit much to expect mining companies to train them all.

Alot of the people that they need are engineers etc. Alot are
specialised gas people. Our eduction system needs improving for
both university education as well as the trades, to convince kids
that becoming an electrician etc is worthwhile. As it is, a huge
number drop out of their apprenticeships for all sorts of reasons.

The thing is, miners already spend heaps on training. Everyone who
I know, who goes to the NW, has to do accreditation course after
course. Its part of their duty of care. But there is absolutaly
no loyalty. No matter what a company spends on training an employee,
if he's offered 5c more elsewhere, he's usually off.

Where we had a lot of migrants come in, was when they were offered
visas, if they enrolled as students in Aus. Many bought their
visas that way, but I gather that hole has now been plugged.