Albie Manton in Darwin, I also work in the mining service industry and quite simply can not believe the money I am paid.

In fact, just one days over time pays more than a full week as a butcher.

The sad part is, we have made a rod for oir own backs as wages MUST come down or we will resist at our peril.

As for457's they should be stopped immediately because our jobs sector is in train wreck mode and we will need every job we can find, even if wages are cut to more realistic levels.

The days of the gravy train are gone.

Wolly B,
I suspect the ship has already sunk and what is occurring in salvage.
Australia has yet to suffer a global financial meltdown. It wii ans sooner than we think.
The whole country id propped on real estate values.
Those values are false and corrupt and finance is fostered in turn by inflated property values.
Mining is the only real support prop in the fiscal wall that remains reasonable solid although there are signs of it faltering.
Shell has left the house and now QANTAS is foundering.
Foreign capital is circling the Aussie Icons like sharks in the ocean around a sinking ship.
Unemployment will rise because there is no manufacturing industry left in Australia.
I live in a major tourist town (Cairns) and there were only 6 jobs advertised in the Saturday Job market in hospitality and two those were for trawler captains.
Will the last person out please turn off the lights.

qantas is reducing its work force, so is this the beginning of the end for qantas?

It is a step towards the end of the airline.
It will still take a long time, but it is inevitable.
QANTAS will not be on its own and many airlines have already preceded it.
As the fares rise their passenger profile will change, first the casual
person going interstate for an event related to their sport or hobby
will end and then next family events, low priority business trips and
the airlines will be left with the CEOs & politicians.

Then they can close Mascot and move operations to Baddgeries Creek.
The government by then will be starving for assets to sell and the
runways in Botany Bay will make terrific sites for blocks of units
with water views to sell to Chinese businessmen on the run.

To become serious again, but I wasn't joking anyway, the large increase
in the use of video conferencing is the writing on the wall.

Airlines have no future and I notice we are now paying $130 a barrel
for oil and is another turn on the screw on the airlines.
Note, if last years loss on QANTAS is repeated they may shutdown
by July because they cannot trade while insolvent.

Wolly B,
QANTAS will go.
A shame but it has outlived its usefulness.
If they had not tried to keep up with the world and concentrated on their niche market and their quality control they might have survived.
How do you compete with an airline owned by an oil sheik whose daily oil income amounts to the price of a new airliner.
Now they are about to lose their exclusivity in the Cairns to Horn Island market.
TAA and Ansett were good airlines until they fell foul to the vanity of world stages.

I note that Virgin is also operating at a loss, so I wonder how long
before they are looking for a handout.
The fares seem cheap at present but the rise in fuel prices that will
occur around 2017 will probably mean a big reduction in services.

For the airlines, but not the taxpayer, when the politicians realise
they will have to get to Canberra by train they will quickly find the money.

There is no solution, eventually we will have to live without airlines.
It has been done before you know !