With over $5 billion in unfinished projects one of Australia's largest constriction companies Probuild has gone into shock administration. Hundreds of tradies have been sacked, and thousands of other jobs could be lost. This is a worrying trend, and may well be the tip of the iceberg for the Australian construction industry. Shades of China's overheated property market, but on a much smaller scale.

Dear Paul,

What a shame that so many people will take a loss
if a new owner will not be found. Wilson Bayly Holmes
in South Africa has decided not to financially support
Probuild any longer. So many projects will be dumped
as a result. Perhaps a miracle will happen?
Fingers-crossed.

Wilson Bayly Holms blames it squarely on Victoria's mismanagement of Covid, and the stupid idea that the economy could be hibernated, then miraculously awakened a couple of years into the future.

It is not just Covid. It is climate change hysteria and 'net zero by 2050 lunacy.

In the period 2009 to 2019, 76,200 manufacturing jobs were destroyed across Australia while only 14,700 jobs in the renewable sector were created. For every 1 job created in renewables, 5 have been destroyed in manufacturing.

Mining is still the best bet, with 95% of jobs full time compared with 70% across all other sectors. Mining pays double the average wage.

'Net zero by 2050' is predicted to put another 650,000 jobs at risk. And there is bipartisan support for that lunacy, as there is for Big Australia and mass immigration.

Get used to it. The Australian economy is on a hiding to nothing over the next few years. We have federal debt approaching $1Trillion and, based on Frydenberg's estimates it'll be close to $2 Trillion within 4 years.

This at a time when inflation and therefore interest rates are rising in the US and Europe. We have a government gratuitously insulting our major trading partner simply for electoral advantage. All of this leads to higher interest rates here and a devalued dollar which in turns leads to higher inflation and a weak housing market.

Neither member of the uni-party will mention or acknowledge this before the election. The Libs can't admit their WuFlu policies were disastrous for the economy. The Labs, while they'll definitely blame it on the Libs post-election, don't want it mentioned now because then they'd have to say what they'd do about it. And none of the solutions are palatable.

Meanwhile, necessary interest rate rises will be delayed until after the election. Then all speed limits are off.

Buckle down and buckle up....it ain't gunna be pretty.

There was a $300 million bid by a Chinese company to buy Probuild from its South African owners, WBHO. The foreign owners were advised the Morrison government would likely reject the takeover bid.

Does the Morrison government now have an obligation to support the sacked workers of Probuild?

In my view we need to take care not to be too dependent on China- I believe they are one of our biggest trading partners. As the Communists say "capitalists will sell the communists the rope to hang them with".

Australia is too dependent on the low value resources sector rather than value added production.

We shouldn't have let the borrowing to cover social security payments to get to such a state- we could have locked the borders to prevent new strains getting into Australia- so at least people could have continued working and being productive.

If there was less red tape in housing then more people could own their own houses and the government wouldn't need to pay their rent during the Covid incident and the mass unemployment. The mass economy has a number of dangerous dependencies that failed.

There's still a lot that can be done to get people off unemployment benefit's and start covering off their own expenses. But some politicians are unwilling to do it.

There have been anti-vax protests in Canberra- if they can just shut the Australian borders- and let unvaxxed people get back to work then things will be better for the economy. Otherwise things look very bad for the future- every month the debt bill increases. Many people have been out of work for a while and their skills are at risk due to becoming long term out of work. Another notch of failure to manage the economic side of the Covid incident.

Perhaps Scott Morrison should take the social security bill out of the GST payments to the states- especially the irresponsible ones

ttbn said- "Wilson Bayly Holms blames it squarely on Victoria's mismanagement of Covid"

Answer- Good point- Kudos ttbn.

Perhaps that is part of Premier Andrews plan to transfer assets to China- Chinese wealth redistribution. It's an interesting exercise as to how China could feature as the protagonist in a sequel of "The Vulture Fund by Stephen W. Frey". In the book terrorists use the threat of a nuclear explosion to refactor and scoop property prices.

Interesting how the CCP government can redirect money from the Chinese people to purchase foreign business.

At any rate Australian's seem even before the current Covid madness to be living beyond our means. The Government tries to fix it by immigration and other means and only succeeds in making it worse. We buy too many things that break, that only serve one purpose, that we don't use, that we don't need. Edward Bernays used the ideas of his uncle Freud to create the idea that people should be driven by emotion rather than purpose- we need to refocus on what is important or China will take us over- and all our stuff will mean nothing.

This means that children may need to play on old equipment, have less supervision by "qualified" people- probably more fun. Means less non-productive jobs that are not directly related to survival needs. Hopefully the government will reduce red tape for cottage industries such as small food production people/ businesses- perhaps having health advice guidance for example rather than restaurant inspectors. Facilitate and encourage people to be more self sufficient so that they don't need to have their hands out to the government if a crisis occurs.

I can't understand how Melbourne was judged as the most livable city- I went there once

http://www.smh.com.au/business/melbourne-judged-worlds-most-liveable-city-20110830-1jjaq.html

""Australia, with a low population density and relatively low crime rates, continues to supply some of the world's most liveable cities," said Jon Copestake, editor for the EIU survey.

Vancouver's score slipped to third after a lower rating for infrastructure, placing it below Vienna in Austria. It's the first time since 2002 that the Canadian city hasn't occupied or shared the top slot for liveability.

It seems residents have to pay for what they get, though, with another recent EIU report ranking Sydney as the sixth-most expensive city in the world, with Melbourne coming at No. 7. The survey assessed the cost of living in both cities to be about 40 per cent higher than in New York, mostly because of steep housing costs in Australia."

I guess with Julia Gillard and others "Big Australia Policy"- Australia will continue to become less livable with steep rises in housing and downward pressure on wages

Government and other restrictions discourage people from taking initiative. This has been taken to extremes when lock-downs have occurred around the world. In many instances letting people take initiative can have surprisingly beneficial results. It's better to lock down a country than within a country or region- it affects less people- etc.

I've got a younger brother who is against vaccination
as is his entire family. They're planning on visiting
us in Victoria sometime this year. This makes me somewhat
nervous. Both my husband and our family are double vaccinated
and we're going for our booster shots shortly.

How do I tell my brother that we're not keen to see them?
We don't want to take the risk.

It reminds me of the old joke.

A bloke is against vaccination. He's convinced that God
will save him. Well the bloke ends up doing of COVID.
When he get to heaven he asks - why God let him down?

God replies:

I made masks available. Social distancing was free.
I gave medical knowledge through medical doctors.
I guided the scientists who created a vaccine in
record time. You did nothing to help yourself.

What the hell else did you need?

While Foxy talks the bill is getting bigger. Get the states that fail to lock out new corona through the ports pay for the Centrelink payments through the GST.

What madness, less than 100 people in Victoria died OF Covid, the rest were on their last legs.
All the shut downs, fascist repression, police violence and stupid masking did nothing! Absolutely nothing! The computer modeling was the classic case of garbage in, garbage out. Tell me one prediction that was correct.
Anyone remember Sutton saying 300 cases a day, not on my watch! Then we went to 20,000 in one day. Nothing from you ALP idiots or the dumber LNP idiots either come to that.

CM, you claim to be the Forums fountain of knowledge, but you make this dumb statement.

"Get the states that fail to lock out new corona through the ports pay for the Centrelink payments through the GST."

Anyone with half a brain knows the "ports" as you call them, and who comes in and who don't, is a Fedeal government responsibility under Australia's constitution. Being a foreigner you may not understand that little fact.

I wonder if the Victorian government who bankrupted this company will pay the wages of the retrenched workers?

Good point shadowminister- Probably- (from their Chinese handlers)

Gettheloot
pointingslinkingmist
wochtheboot
stazycommunist.

An attempt at poetry ostensibly in the style of Finnegan's Wake

I suppose I don't have half a brain- because I don't agree with Paul1405- as Paul1405 is the definition of a full brain- Paul1405 the alpha and the omega- Paul "my tongue (or still pond) is greener than yours" 1405- or maybe Paul1405 means that he wants to take to my head with a machete- imagining myself with half a brain seems to appeal to Paul1405- maybe it's Paul1405's projection- seems to be a popular way of resolving disputes under pressure. Do you feel like a foreigner Paul1405? hopefully we can find a place for you Paul1405 in this world!

Is your contempt Paul1405 a redirected sense of admiration and covetousness and yearning for perspicacious unattainability??

Those fighting to be different doing it in the same way as the rest of the subculture. Perhaps this is what Jung meant by the rebel.

It's interesting that those that refuse to accept their own traditions and advocate for evil end up feeling like they don't belong.

CM,

I've known people high on LSD to write more comprehensible gobbledygook than your last effort. What is your drug of choice?

Pauliar,

And you are speaking from personal experience.

Nah SM, never done hard drugs in my life.

BTW, that country you held up as the beacon of democracy, INDIA, has sided with your mate Putin. Seems the Indians buy a lot of military madness from Russia to throw at the Pakies. India is still trading with Russia.

On Probuild, the parent company in South Africa has run out of cash. With Probuild over extended in Australia with no cash supply, failure was the out come.

A while back you were making noise about the Chinese building industry, well?

The CCP was willing to buy Probuild for $300 million, help Morrison to get his poor sick head out of the noose on this.

Nothing to do with the Victorian government.

Pauliar,

Only an idiot would think that the incompetent Vic labor government arbitrarily locking down the state and stopping site work would have no effect on building companies.

shonky,

Stop relying on that Murdoch Gutter Press for your news, and wake up to the facts. Probuild has been in trouble for a number of years through bad management. They had been over extending themselves by writing forward contracts as far out as 2025. This caused a liquidity problem with rising costs and lock in contracts. The SA parent company finally pulled the plug on cash flow, and Probuld could not pay its suppliers. Nothing what so ever to do with the Victorian government.

Pauliar,

Probuild specifically mentioned the incompetent Vic Labor management of Covid as a major contributor to their losses.

Only an extreme left whinge moron would pretend otherwise.

shonky,

Of course they would, they wouldn't want to incriminate themselves through bad management. Keep reading the Murdoch Gutter Press, you'll go far.

Pauliar,

After 1000s of small businesses have gone bankrupt due to lockdowns only morons would try and claim that lockdowns would play havoc with building companies.

But then look who I'm talking to!

I don't think I agree with Paul1405 and the liquidity problems but I can do more research.

I think that lock down's have caused liquidity issues for a number of businesses- Victoria is one of the biggest markets in Australia- Probuild appears to have national contracts. Paul1405's tactic seems to be to raise an issue- without sources- that is difficult to verify and then run away- standard communist tactics. It takes so much effort to counter his unsupported argument that the conversation has moved on by the time the research has been completed.

Perhaps an example of brilliant but contemptible tactics

Extraordinary claims needs extraordinary evidence

A second huge building firm Condev faces COLLAPSE with $1billion in projects and 125 jobs on the line just weeks after Probuild crashed.

Can't blame this one on Dan Andrews, Condev like Probuild are suffering a cash flow problem. Having signed big contracts with developers, they find they can't meet their financial and contractual obligations. Probuild had the SA parent company supplying the cash, it pulled the plug. Now the banks are pulling the credit plug on Condev. Once you can't pay your short term debts for materials and labour then you soon default on the contract.

CM, it has nothing to do with your favourite Boggy Man, the Communist. A lot to do with bad greedy management. More to come, tip of the iceberg.

BTW, Both these companies have dozens of projects behind time, waiting for deadlines they can't meet.

It's pointless to discuss the issue with Paul1405. But others have the choice to see the world in their own way independent from the forces of the world.

Yes its pointless CM to discuss this issue when Paul is correct in what he says, and you can't evoke your ideological paranoia about those evil Communist.

Pauliar,

This time you are correct the Condev collapse is completely unrelated to
the collapse of probuild due to Dan Andrew's incompetence and lockdowns.

shonky,

It was YOU who mistakenly tried to blame the Probuild collapse on Andrews, not me. I know your knowledge on this is like your legal knowledge, ZERO! It's a bit of a hoot, the way YOU went on about the Chinese building industry, only to see the Australian equolivent falling over. The SM kiss of death!

Pauliar idiot,

I did and so did they. You have not shown otherwise.