I will say it again;
Manufacturing will return to Australia. It will not be a matter of
international treaties, IMFs, WTOs or any other alphabetical soup.

It will happen, and in fact it has already started, because the cost
of transport will put mass container shipping out of the reach of the
buyers of, at first bulky products and then gradually more compact and
expensive goods.

Here is the message from on high;
Globalisation is ending.

Suggested reading;
Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller by Jeff Rubin.

Utube has a number of his talks on the subject.
Tight supplies of fuel especially bunker fuel is expected late this
year or in the next 12 months. Diesel/bunker fuel mix is available
but it is very expensive and ships are sailing at 14 knots instead of
25 knots. That puts the crewing costs up, but like the airlines they
are in the same crew cost/ fuel cost crunch.

The discussion in the future will be how do we manage the transition
from an import orientated industry to a high tech manufacturing
economy. Think of all those now retired electronics manufacturing
people that were put out to graze 25 years or so ago.
Who is going to train all the people needed to bootstrap up the new
industries. All those school leavers that only want computer jobs
will be in for a shock.

Watch this space.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2855568.html
A thought promoting link this one, so some will not read it.
But it gives a sound reason the opposition is using such themes, ignoring every issue that can not help its single agenda.
Bazz, mate, you must consider this,have faith in this generation.
They like us before them will jump every hurdle climb under every fence and, just as has been the case for 30 years, every manufacturing job lost will see two new ones, in other areas.

>They like us before them will jump every hurdle climb under every fence
>
Yes, indeed Belly, they will but not till we suffer a decrease in
living standards while we crank up everything. Still it will take some
years so it might not be too stress full.

Belly,

It was a good article, though a little naive for the following reasons:

1 If the carbon tax is passed, the attacks on it by the Coalition will not stop. Every cost of living increase will be used to beat labor, and the 2013 elections will be a rout.

2 There are constitutional road blocks to a double dissolution. Yes but there are ways around it. For example, The carbon price is a tax, and if any remnant is excluded from the budget, the carbon tax will be dead. The greens and labor can only block it by blocking supply.

SM,
Whoever wrote the first sentence of this thread has been asleep since 1970. I agree with Hasbeen the denise started with Whitlam and every government has carried on the same way. Three things the major parties have agreed on, high immigration, multiculturalism and the demise of Aussie manufacturing. All have been to our detriment.

The proposed carbon tax might be another nail in the coffin but all parties have endorsed the demise of manufacturing.

Labor has made many blunders so surely you can pick one out rather than make one up. Just wait a bit untill the carbon tax comes in and the NBN is up and running. Heres one for you, this government spent $20 million giving legal aid and advice to the illegal boat people this year and expects to spend $26 million next year.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/industrial-relations/tony-abbott-trips-on-industry-protection/story-fn59noo3-1226124933653
This link, and this thread, in the case of the thread, some what flippantly.
Highlights assault on the very thing that took this country out in to the world.
Free trade.
It in a photo shows a man I regard as a hero, as hardly pressed by this issue, from all sides as the Prime Minister.
It reminds me, my union , my lifetime union, the AWU is again, facing massive job loss, in one of its workplaces a union now bearing the great name Australian Workers Union
I will not be loved for this, not concerned, rather proud conservatives will give me a kicking.
But my hero, one of three very truly great men of the recent past and long term, AWU I stand against ,and with Gillard on.
This debate should never be about mud to throw.
Not about jobs protection, we left that and became a trading nation.
We left behind too stagnation in workplaces and found a tool, Enterprise Bargaining, the saw productivity increases.
We always, find those saying our manufacturing industry is dieing,but we,this very country, has long ago and every day benefited from our drive to wards ending trade barriers.
Abbott? please! both wants and does not want them, my union, our best fights a battle here it can not win.
I commend the government for putting Australia first.