Interesting conversation in the hotel bar last night…
Talking to an American from Austin, TX that runs a multi-national consulting firm and his Australian regional manager about what is going on in Australia as far as manufacturing…
Part of the backstory here is that Ford, Holden (Chevy), and Toyota are ceasing production of autos here. Also one refinery is closing on the East Coast and one of the tobacco companies is closing their manufacturing. Estimates are something north of 50K jobs will be lost due to these closings in both direct and indirect jobs.
They do ‘scaled’ personnel consulting, e.g. knowledge levels needed, numbers of bodies, and management of personnel policies for ramping up or down for major companies. The Aussie basically said words to the effect that Australia is ‘f**ked’, between the government taxes, lack of tax breaks, relatively ‘low’ breakpoint for luxury tax on items (like cars) and unions driving salaries to levels that are not supportable. He also said that without oil/gas production and mining, Western Australia would truly be in the toilet, that the wine (Swan Valley) and beef production couldn’t support the entire area.
They also discussed the impact of the current prime minister’s attempts to get free trade agreements with Japan, Korea and China and what that would do to jobs (probably move them offshore) in Australia. It appears at least Toyota is planning on manufacturing in Japan and just shipping vehicles into Australia, Ford will probably manufacture in the Philippines, and what Chevy will do is undetermined.
On another front, it appears there is now a push to limit the AUS submarine force, the Parliament is now saying only six submarines are needed, and they might be better off buying from Japan or Germany rather than building their own.
All in all, a pretty damn bleak forecast in the next few years, and I hope the Aussies get it solved. They’re good folks, and deserve better…
I hope they can solve their problems. The Australian built vehicles sold in the USA when I was in the business were of poor quality and reliability (Mercury Capri, Mistsubishi Diamante S/W). Sad, especially the Capri. Nice style,lots of “eyeball”, decent driver, but a service department queen.
“They’re good folks, and deserve better…”
Yes they are, and yes they do. Too bad ‘our’ government doesn’t recognize that…
Good folks indeed. Had a visiting Aussie dad bring 2 sons out to the range the other day. We loaned them a pistol and some ammo and let ’em bang away on one of our bays. He said to me “Don’t let them do to you what they did to us.” Truer words were never spoken.
They have a similar problem to many similar small markets where manufacturers simply don’t want to play the game in high taxation environments. It’s much easier simply to leave and allow the consumers to pay import duties – with no jobs locally. The Kiwis are facing an even tougher situation in this regard.
WSF- Understood…
Tim/Six- Yep, I’ve also been talking to shooters…
LL- Thanks for the comment on the Kiwis, now what he said makes sense… He said the Aussies weren’t the ‘worst’ in the region…
Yep. What they all said. I continue to be astounded at the Progressive stupidity, downsizing business, raising taxes, and enlarging give-aways. Where do they think the money’s going to come from??
If the Aussie Govt. was smart, they’d try and get manufacturing done domestically (cars, golf clubs, widgets of all shapes and sizes) and offer tax free zones to do it in. The jobs that are created provide for locals, who in turn pay (very high in AUS) taxes.
The progressive philosophy is that profit is bad (communist thinking) rather than profit is good. Jobs are bad (let them go on welfare) is another refrain that we see in socialist countries. And it all works until the economy crashes and everyone ends up equally poor.
Rev- They’re scrambling to figure that out, talking about taking the equivalent of Social Security away from ‘well to do’… And uping the age to possibly 70…
LL- Australia is basically socialist… following Britain’s lead, and sinking…
Hey Old NFO;
From what I have heard and read, in Australia the “Greens” and other progressives really got hold of the government for a while and Australia was talking about charging a carbon tax on airplanes coming in like what the E.U is trying to do Europe. These same liberals that trashed the old world have gotten rooted in Australia and to a lesser extent in the U.S.A. What keeps then in check…well slows them down here is the U.S. Constitution, that is why they are trying to get rid of it. Harder to put their pie in the sky schemes with that in the way.
+1 Bob
Bob/Rick- Yep… Listening to the radio today they are planning to raise taxes rather than cut gov’t spending… WHY does that sound familiar… sigh