billie:

Interesting questions.

I shared a lab with Martin Green at UNSW. He is most noatble for pioneering work in semiconductor Solar Cell design and manufacturing.

We don't hear much from him these days!

"Don't care where your Nokia handset is manufactured. The IP (and profits) remain in Finland.
NO hightech, startup companies thrive without their own domestic government support. Our's has never given that."

Ok so you arn't worried about actual manufacture in Aus. Yup,
plenty of hightech startups get going, plenty of venture capital
around, if you have a great idea and business plan and are not
just daydreaming, as many do. Also lots of Govt help available.

I put a few bucks into such a comapany, via the ASX, highly
speculative mind you. They have received various Govt assitance
for various work they do. CSIRO gets another huge annual dollop.
There are great tax deductions for research too. Our main problem
however is still industry attitude. Life was such a breeze when
they had high tarrifs to protect them from the real world. Just
put the price up 10% every year, easy peasy. Now they have to compete
in the real world, its sorting out the men from the boys.

So a change of attitude is required in manufacturing!

Billie, school starts this week and 200 teacher vacancies are
unfilled in WA. Today I heard that they are bringing in 300
police recruits from overseas, to fill urgent vacancies there.
There are jobs in Australia. People just have to get off their
butts and go where the work is. Clearly Melbourne is not the
centre of the world anymore :)

Yo Yabby.

Lively discussion on this page!

So what exactly do you think is wrong with our economy, and what do you think should be done about it, if anything?

Iluvatar thinks it should be knowledge-based, others think it should be based on moving to exploit the resources boom. What's your take on it?

I reckon we've had our head in the sand for too long... neglected education, neglected real training of trades and professionals and as a result we have the skills shortage we have now.

No workers for real jobs, just for miners and shearers and lots of Mac jobs !

Thanks for the heads up about the teaching jobs Yabby. There appears to be a shortage of Italian teachers.

Yabby there are clearly jobs where you wander in off the street ask for work and get it. I visited WA and looked for work in WA last year and wasn't successful so why would it be different now?

From my previous experience in WA, you can wait a while to secure a professional position, and in fact in many years graduates have to travel east for work. So why would "a bloody Victorian" knowing the WA employment prejudices rock up and expect to land a job. Over here in the east "youse" are multiple female sheep not the second person plural.

Why should I uproot myself from family, friends, professional relationships to look for work. And why should I return to the state where I was seriously underpaid, lived in incredible hardship and was the victim of violent assault simply because my family was in the east and was unable to take legal redress

Billie, I know nothing about you, your personal experiences, what jobs
you looked for, why you didn't achieve what you wanted. It
would also be very foolish of me to judge the WA economy by the
experience of one single person.

What I am telling you is the situation as a whole over here, as
evidenced not just by me, but by just about everyone I speak to
or anyone else who comments in the press about the overall
WA situation.

Fact is WA is booming, there are jobs everywhere, virtually every
employer I speak to is wondering what to do about it. That includes
the State Govt. Recently I ran into a 22 year old kid, not so
long in getting his ticket, who is a roof carpenter. He's hired
a couple of mates, they do the roof carpentry for builders
of homes. He's making 90 grand a year, working for it, but
basically the world is his oyster right now! Thats just one of
many young enterprising people who is thriving, grabbing the
opportunities presented and making stuff happen.

I am not sure of your age, but if I was a young Melbourne kid,
complaining about how tough things are in Melbourne, I would
have jumped in my ute ages ago, got my arse into gear and gone
where the action is! If I think back 30 years, thats actually
how I landed up in WA 30 years ago and its the best thing I
ever did. Like they say, some people make it happen, some
watch it all happen and some never knew it happened. All very
true, but at the end of the day its up to the individual to
be responsible for their lives, not the Government.