Dear Bazz,

I hate to disappoint you but there is no winding back the clock on globalisation.

Problem is that people have been fooled into believing that economic growth is a pathway to a better world.

Eventually governments are going to have to share power with business corporations or bust.

A brave new world for all those who can't think for themselves!

I can see nothing wrong in requiring any company granted a mining lease, or any other permit to exploit Oz recourses, to be required to acquire a large percentage of their capital equipment in Oz. 50% minimum springs to mind, provided it is an ongoing commitment including replacements.

If this lead to overseas companies setting up fabrication plants in oz to build fixed plant, or equipment manufacturers having to set up in Oz to build draglines & bulldozers etc, at higher cost to miners, so be it. We would gain in jobs & technology transfer.

This to my mind is a much better way to ensure Oz & our people profit from our mineral & other resources, much better than a tax.

This is one where I'm right with Labor.

Dear Hasbeen,

Hasn't this been on the Labor agenda since Bob Hawke became prime minister: the Asianisation of Australia.

Where do you think these investors are going to come from?

When I was a kid Chinatown was a lane in Haymarket called Dixon Street; now it goes by the name of Sydney.

Under your paradigm for economic optimism the entire country will soon be owned lock stock and barrel by China. The end result of having let an alcoholic become prime minister 25 years ago.

Australia gains far more from being part of glottalization than it costs us.
Think, no mining exports no meat wheat and food, can any one think we can sell while refusing to let goods in.
Such a plan negates the need for this scheme, we would stagnate.
And I doubt any support for our say steel, that stops importers who offer a cheaper rate will work.
Easy to gloat for conservatives, and to clutch at straws from my side.
Reality beckons, we are inflicting Liberals, in a similar way to NSW, failures of Labor, intrusions of power brokers blindness of Gillard.
We should look at tax breaks in high employing manufacturing industry.
We have an easy solution, should the reserve bank drop interest rates by one and a quarter percent, international trade in our dollar would slump and let us be competitive.

More evidence of these fools (labor) being out of their debth.

On the one hand they try to tell us all is fine, we are almost full employment, now, they tell us we need to create more local jobs.

So what is it, are we fully employed, or are we not. Now if we are, as they like to keep reminding us, where are the local workers going to come from, or more so, if they do take up these jobs, where are the workers goimg to come from to fill the void they leave.

I am afraid it's yet another policy on the run, fueled by sheer desperation from this sinking government.

As I said in another thread, September just can't come quick enough.

Belly said;
Australia gains far more from being part of glottalization than it costs us.

No it doesn't. With it we lose jobs and the incomes that go with it,
and we are consumers spending our money, and producing nothing.
In China they are getting jobs and receiving our money.

I am currently studying a paper that shows how the world has got
itself into this mess. It is a lot more complex than just that of
course but I will write something about it when I finish studying it.
It has about 60 pages of text plus graphs.

It confirms what I have been saying for some time about growth & eneregy.