Daggett, I remind you that in 1942, there was hardly much worth calling
“technology”, life was simple, unlike today, where we have a world of massive
complexity and specialisation. Sure the Japanese did not invade Australia,
the size of the place would have been one extremely good reason, given that
their troops were already spread thin. The world has changed since 1942,
get used to it.

I have a 1963 geography book here, which makes for interesting reading.
Under Australian trade, wool is listed as the main export. Then came
meat, sugar, wheat, hides and skins, iron and steel, butter, flour.

Imports were motor vehicles and parts, petroleum, cotton, electrical appliances,
drugs and chemicals, tobacco, rubber and timber. Clearly Australia was an
agricultural economy, importing many manufactured products from overseas.

How much do you think it would cost consumers, if they had to buy Australian
made computers, printers etc? You have yet to give a good reason, as to why
they should.

Resource projects underway in WA amount to 166 billion$, so 70’000 extra
miners will be needed, earning top money. People servicing those miners will
add up to another 250’000 at least, including lots of specialised, highly profitable
manufacturing-engineering.

You would prefer people to give up those high paying jobs, put them on some
production line making toasters etc, then slug them extra for their consumer
products. Forget any notions of politics Daggett, you have no chance at all :)

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I question whether we really do have a skilled labour shortage or an excess of hyperbole.

We are so demanding of certificates for hands on work we are struggle to find skilled tradesmen. for example

Commonwealth Games Melbourne. lack of security personnel. In Victoria a security person must study at TAFE for 6 months and sit through classes given by serving policemen. The appropriately accredited bouncers were not going to drop their permanent night club job to do security for the Commonwealth Games for 4 to 6 weeks max. Consequently Indian students were hired. Now skippys had to be qualified by the Indians didn't know how to search bags, persons, were easily bribed with food and quite frankly some Indian security guards were too small to be any deterent to a 50 year old aussie.

railway linesman and bush firebrigade now has to attend TAFE to learn how to use a chainsaw. Can't see how practical experience isn't more beneficial.

Why do registered teachers have to pay an additional $2000 to get a Certificate IV of workplace training?

I am sure there are further examples of demands for certification that are used to create unnecessary barriers to entry.

I have kept out of this bun-fest until now.

My professional training (accountancy) was orientated to manufacturing, rather than tax returns or audit.

This article whines on about governments role in providing the environment

Example “It is the government's job to create the right policy environment - to tame inflation, increase productivity, strengthen the national innovation system, unlock the knowledge created and preserved within our universities, provide infrastructure, expand skills, and develop strategies for specific industries like automotive and TCF.”

We have had 100 years of government supposedly providing the right policy environment and developing strategies for specific industry.

I was once gainfully consulting to TCF through NIES.

A complete waste of time.

Most of the companies reviewed failed to qualify for government assistance because their commercial future was so marginal.

Maybe a better solution would be

Government withdraw from pretending it knows anything and abandoning all the grants for jackasses which distort the real wealth creation process

Offset the savings of no more government grants, retrenchment of the pretend government industry planning boof-heads and reduce company tax rates and specific disruptive taxes, like land tax and FBT.
Maintain the liberals reigning in the excesses of unionism
Forgetting the grace and favour system of dubious R&D schemes (where, if some one wears a white lab coat they are a double deductible expense).

Improve freight infrastructure like better roads.

Stop pretending anyone is served by protectionism.

Fight for lower tariffs in export markets based on lower import tariffs and quotas into Australia.

Leave aussie manufacturing to produce what it has a natural advantage at and bugger the rest. With a domestic population of 23 million, we are competitively disadvantaged. The only way around that is to attract those with the vision to see beyond that local market and those fellows come with some conditions, one of them is autonomy. They have no need or desire for public service pratts taxing the reward for their innovation out of existence.

To me it is simple. Margaret Thatcher helped stop the rot in UK. We just need someone to do the same here.

Billie has drawn attention to a serious obstacle to employment and promotion; the obsession with academic control over non-apprenticed manual skill employment.

Courses are expensive and out of reach for those unemployed, and at the rate in which TAFEs are being closed down, many students are forced to travel up to two hours each way to their nearest facility (ie as in the closure of Seaforth).

Even such simple jobs as building wooden fences, require a laborour to have several thousand dollars on hand; and (in Qld) be certified by a Building Services Authority that clearly exists to favour the big end of town. It is an indication of how extraneous this qualification demand is, that I learned this skill in a few hours at the age of sixteen.

Politicians insist these requirements were introduced to protect consumers yet, continuing with the example of fencing, construction standards have plummeted quite dramatically.

Of course, government then claims positions cannot be filled and these figures are deducted from unemployed statistics. Thus real unemployment is actually enforced, while simultaneously hiding the numbers.

I look forward to the day when the politicians and bureaucrats responsible stand trial for these crimes against the Australian people.

Yabby wrote: "Resource projects underway in WA amount to 166 billion$(sic), so 70’000(sic) extra miners will be needed, ..."

Hadn't you already said that, more or less, already? and hadn't I already responded:

"It only makes 'perfect sense' to a person who cares nothing for the environment or for future generations. ..." (http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=7218#111456)

Of course it will always be easy to gain acceptance for the ransacking of our natural resources in return for short term wealth and much harder to gain acceptance for the more difficult course necessary for our our economy to become truly sustainable in the longer term.

Col Rouge's post had me all teary eyed with nostalgia. Weren't the 80's fun? No such thing as society. Just an economy with units of production and consumption making rational choices to maximise their wealth. Privatisation rampant. Taxes slahed and public services and infrastructure crumbling. Truly a great time for a young accountant to be alive.
Of course there was the odd hiccup. European governments just didn't get the message and insisted on granting money to jackasses like Airbus. Complete waste of time as everyone knows the market (sorry..The Market) had already ensured perfect competition between Boeing, Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas.
The 90's started with great promise as well, with Thatcherite measures adopted with gusto by Australian governments. CSL got sold off and good riddance too. It's commercial potential and public service utility was simply too good to leave in public hands. Melbourne's public transport system and SA's electricity - greatly improved now after being managed by the private sector. Modbury Hospital in SA - another success story.
And private health insurance - the jewel in the crown. If only people would realise what a wonderful deal it is, succesive Governments wouldn't need to keep propping it up with public money.
When will people learn?

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