What if you lived in Australia?

[palo5]

Originally Posted by Motorboater

Don't forget to blame those blasted unions...

Exactly! Blame the people who actually make the things, the people who work & sweat, not the bonus-collecting, air-conditioned management

[Sir Honkers]

Originally Posted by Estreeter

That all said, some months ago bought one of the last of the legendary Falcons,



Best damn car I ever owned.

At the risk of being burnt at the stake for heresy, I was, am and always will be, a Holden man. But having said that, the Government of the day, deserved flogging for not subsiding the car manufacturing industry. Short-sighted political ideology.

[trailmaster]

Due to the untimely death of our belovedwinebeavisthe "Australian Outback" adventure that I was going to start today is going to be post poned for 1 or more weeks. winebeaviswas not a personal friend of mine, but I did so enjoy his posts and he enjoyed mine and I took it hard when I heard of his sudden passing, so I would rather wait until there is more normality on the forum. There are many members who were personal friends of him who are grieving, and I can see when I get online each morning that there is a lack of the usual high amount of posting that occurs during the previous night. So I am going to wait until the mood of most members has begun to improve.

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by Motorboater

Don't forget to blame those blasted unions...

Originally Posted by palo5

Exactly! Blame the people who actually make the things, the people who work & sweat, not the bonus-collecting, air-conditioned management

Typical, if you 2 actually read my post, have a real close look at who's to blame I had listed first, but you know, maybe I ain't biased at everything

Originally Posted by loosegoose

At the risk of being burnt at the stake for heresy, I was, am and always will be, a Holden man.

Well, you won't be, I really liked the Ford and Holden rivalry here, they were good for each other. Here's one you wouldn't know, The old Ford tool room in Geelong actually machined some tooling for Holden over the years.

But, I won't get into the politics of it all,
Last night I had a great time meeting old work mates, some I've seen often since I left in 2006, some I saw for the first time since.

A small story of my early work life there,
I was a smartass 18 year old apprentice, my tradesman, Old Billy we called him, was not far from retirement. He was at one of the pubs last night, had no idea he was still alive, well into his 90's now and fit as a Mallee Bull ( you can look that up palo ) for his age.

Anyway, Billy and I were working on a huge metal press, while working on it, something went wrong, so we went down to the main electrical panel, the main circuit breaker tripped, this was a 500 amp breaker, that's very big.

I went to reset the breaker and just before I put my hand on it, Billy grabbed my wrist and stopped me. He then asked me a question I'll never forget,
"What hand do you pull yourself with ?"

For those overseas members, pull yourself is a way we use here to call wanking

Anyway, there were a few seconds of silence for 2 reasons, I was stunned and trying to think of a smartass answer but didn't give one as if I had Billy would have got me to carry his and my tools later on, that was my way of actually being a smartass by avoiding the punishment.

He asked the question again, but his time in a slightly angry voice as of to say he's the master and I apprentice.

So, I said right hand, he then let go of my wrist and said
"From now on sunshine, whenever you reset an old breaker that big, use your left hand because if something goes bang and arcs out, you'll still have a hand to pull yourself with"

I'll never forget that

We left Geelong mid afternoon to come back up here, drove past the Ford plant, all I could think of was what Holden, for those that don't know will be closing it's plants about this time next year for good, and Ford have contributed into building this nation ,and it ain't just cars.

[Motorboater]

Originally Posted by Estreeter

Typical, if you 2 actually read my post, have a real close look at who's to blame I had listed first, but you know, maybe I ain't biased at everything

Yeah I read it. I was joshing.

[buttsie]

The real disgrace in all of this is theres a transformation fund sitting in Canberra with about 680million thats barely been touched because they set the bar so high nobody has gotten significant funding from it

The even bigger disgrace is the upskilling that GMH have been doing for its workers before the 2017 close..getting a AUS1000 per worker they put through to upskill them in.....the next level in the same industry thats leaving Australia ...I kid you not

One worker said once a week they'd do some exams where answers were provided...
blatant cheating but hey its helping the bottom line of the corporation


From what i've read the production is heading to Thailand where their paying AUS 2-6 dollars an hour - good wage in that country no doubt

No government can subsidise wages to that level

Local precurement policies are the best subsidies
- most governments fleets are full of fords & holdens

Dont get me started on how woeful our bilateral free trade agreements are

Maybe if the Australian public werent in love with cheap 4-6 cyclinder cars from Asia the local industry might have survived longer.

Seems our manufacturing sector is on a hiding to nothing unless the Aussie dollar is around banana republic levels of 60cents US

Our film industry seems to do OK because our wages are far lower
cant have it both ways I guess

Some industries lose others win

Either way you buy local or watch your kids jobs prospects disappear

Seems like the best bet is a cushy civil service / council job because their always subsidised by the private sector no matter how bad the economic conditions become

[Motorboater]

Originally Posted by buttsie

Maybe if the Australian public werent in love with cheap 4-6 cyclinder cars from Asia the local industry might have survived longer.

I wouldn't know how you could expect regular Australians to not choose cheap cars for everyday motoring considering how expensive a car is?

I used to have a Camry for a long time. When I look back, it was excessive for my lifestyle. Like using an oil tanker to go fishing.

[effCup]

Originally Posted by buttsie

the best bet is a cushy civil service / council job because their always subsidised by the private sector no matter how bad the economic conditions become

Given all the corporate welfare that's been handed out--not least so much infrastructure that's paid-for by "the state" (public): ports, railways, roads, cities, etc.--I'd have through the cushy positions were more often on the other foot/hand? Private banks cause a global meltdown from speculative gambles? No worries, they're simply too "big" to fail.

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by Motorboater

I wouldn't know how you could expect regular Australians to not choose cheap cars for everyday motoring considering how expensive a car is?

I owned 2 BA Falcons, one an XR6 and the other an XR6 Turbo, both new.
BA Falcons were not a problem to sell to the public, in fact I know how much overtime I worked at Ford when the BA was released, we couldn't make enough. I know how much the cost of those 2 were also.

The price of the last FG Falcon XR6's hasn't risen that much compared to the BA, given time and inflation.

The problem is not the price itself, it is the price compared to an Asian car.

The biggest problem is also the fact people don't want to think ahead about their kids or their grand kids, not only sad but dangerous.

I pity a country that don't make anything, and that's the way it's headed because if we don't buy Australian we'll just become a service country and a hole in the ground where out mineral wealth goes overseas only to come back as some type of cheap good.

I buy Australian when I can, don't care if it's maybe a slightly lower quality, but at least it's my own way of supporting local jobs.

And a massive pet hate of mine, when people say they can't afford a local product, but can have their damn kids with an iPad, iphone, xboxes and heaps of other luxury crap

I say look after Johnny Smith before Tran Nguyen.

Buttsie mentioned Free Trade agreements, they'll only succeed if the public let it happen, don't buy imports and the agreements are worthless, that's how you screw their plans.

BTW, I went to Geelong again today, driving back up to Melbourne I couldn't go down Melbourne Road past the Ford plant, couldn't bare to look it knowing there was nothing going in there, but tomorrow there will be, some of my old workmates have been kept on for de commissioning (ripping everything out).

[Arturo2nd]

Originally Posted by effCup

Given all the corporate welfare that's been handed out--not least so much infrastructure that's paid-for by "the state" (public): ports, railways, roads, cities, etc.--I'd have through the cushy positions were more often on the other foot/hand? Private banks cause a global meltdown from speculative gambles? No worries, they're simply too "big" to fail.

I would cheerfully hang and shoot executives at "too big to fail" banks. Let them enjoy their bonuses in hell.