"THE crisis now engulfing Australian manufacturing has been long predicted and much foreseen yet the inescapable impression is that our decision-makers have been taken by surprise and are scrambling to do something."

Every time the coalition has raised the issue of the 2 speed economy, the Labor government has tried to shout them down and claim that they are talking down the economy. I assume that this was help promote the myth that the carbon tax would have no effect on the manufacturing sector.

Once again Labor has proven to be more spin than substance.

Manufacturing started burning long before this government SM.

Otherwise the Howard Government and the current one would not have spent millions of tax payer's money subsidising the car industry, providing other incentives to manufacturing (mainly State Govts.) and bailing out failed ventures.

It happened because while we are a wealthy nation we expect cheap goods on the back of cheap labour (and greater profits) while our own manufacturing sector dies. In the long term that will be a failed policy along with unfettered free trade (not trade per se) and other negative impacts of globalisation.

Your statement that the ALP has ignored the two speed economy is blatantly untrue.

SM, as I have said infinitum the plan to wind down production in the First World has its genesis in the Lima Protocol of 1973. A document that even to the simpleton paints the picture of dismantling tariff barriers and dismantling manufacturing in the First World.

The Coalition was in government at the time but both sides of government unanimously agreed on the signing of the protocols presented by the UN, World Bank, and the IMF. All manufacturing stimulus since has been a stop gap measure to ensure we do not lose more manufacturing but there is no plan to START manufacturing again.

The left and the right sold us out, and all subsequent governments have continued the selloff.

I have no choice, it is not wise to challenge Shadow Ministers balance and understanding.
His defense team, equally ill equipped with both, unable to salvage any fairness will jump on me.
Hawk and Kieting, Howard, even when helping his brother out of trouble, a major manufacturer, knew, this country was up against it in manufacturing.
Our high dollar, our wages structure vs China/Japan and a host of others, cripples us.
Opposition , in power would not change Labors policy here.
But is subjecting this country to trade barriers by opposing Apple imports and its stand on olive oil is a threat to billions in trade.
Even yet a chance exists Labor can win!
Yes just maybe the Christopher Pyne like utterings of SM and those he blindly serves will Be seen for what it is.
A policy bag full of horse dung and nothing else.

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Our high dollar, our wages structure vs China/Japan and a host of others, cripples us.
"""

This isn't what cripples us. Government bureaucracy, red tape, taxes, rules, regulation, incompetent ignorance and socialism are killing us. Too many ticks feeding on carcass Australia, sucking the blood out of anyone who dares to have a go!

Get out there and start a business, run it for 5 years and then come back and tell us what's killing carcass Australia! You wouldn't have a f'n clue!

When I left Oz, just before Whitlam, the economy was brilliant. Single income families paying only 7.5% tax, & 3.75% [tax deductible] interest on their housing loan, were very comfortable. Companies were almost all profitable, & life was good.

When I came back the place was stuffed. Unlike most who lived through the changes, I had a before & after picture, which is much clearer.

Ridicules increases in the bureaucracy, & even more ridiculous wages rates he had given to them had made all the old business models redundant.

The private sector had huge wage rises, chasing the public servants, & for most manufacturing, & many other sectors, an employee could not earn enough to cover his increased costs.

Then I started living in the new era, & was even more horrified to find that even after the unsustainable wage rises, most average folk were no longer bringing home enough to survive on a single income. Bracket creep, [or jump with the huge wage increases] was chewing up much of the rises, & with rapidly increasing cost of living, life was difficult.

We tried different models, first importing components, & killing our suppliers, then importing the guts of a product, & wrapping a plastic & tin housing around it.

This avoided duty, & kept a little industry going, but reducing duties killed that. Once you can earn more money with your capital in the bank, than you can manufacturing "things" what does a sensible businessman do? Besides Whitlam's inflation had made real estate speculation the best game in town.

So Belly's right, bad as it is, this government has not done it all. You can sheet much of it home to two of them.

The arrogant idiot Whitlam, who got everything wrong, & the weak fool Fraser, who did not have the guts to reverse many of the Whitlam mistakes