Anyone who has done economics 101 will have passing knowledge of cost pressures economies of scale supply chains etc.
But getting her comparison of labour costs in Africa as in your face comparison ($2.00 per day) - from the ABC news this morning - I was stunned.
The first thought - was this $2.00 a day before or after miners had been shot, a number killed and then accused of the murder??
Is using African labour costs at $2.00 a day with fresh news of miners being shot to death in a speech good advice??
I reckon the foot in mouth analogy has 'plummed' to a new level.
AP
Gillard made the link implying Miss Whale believes $2 a day reasonable in Australia. Miss Whale made no such link, she was simply letting it be known that Africa is presenting a much cheaper option to extract resources, due to a number of factors including; taxes, red tape AND wage pressures (ie unions selfish and unaustralia behaviour of late).
Miss Whale is coming up against these factors in justifying the economics of her Roy Hill mine, Gillard has no understanding of how her time in government has punished businesses, such as Miss Whales interests and Miss Whales propensity to continue with Roy Hill in its current format on the back of a plummeting iron ore price.
In the end us everyday Australians will suffer the consequences over the long term. So thanks Gillard, you are better at constructing an argument that Miss Whale, but consequently you have managed to severely hamper this great country of ours going forward.
"Who advises G.Reinhart one wonders??"
Wouldn't be her personal trainer
BTW - is there any truth to the rumours that in the past vaGina has refused to parovide for tea/coffee facilities on her sites?
BTW - China's officially fkd (well on it's way now) so time to flog off the jet ski(s), uber SUVs, jacuzzis etc etc and get with the real world like those outside mining..
Would love to see vaGina mopping a hallway for $2 an hour.
^^^^^
Hoorrrrray - Kiting you are my hero (except presumably you kite).
Second thread on 'what I heard the media tell me Gina said and I am outraged' - except at least AquaPlow isn't inciting a lynch mob.
You all know David Flanagan said alomost exactly the same about 5 days ago ? Not one thread on here about how David Flanagan is an ugly bastard who deserves to be strung up from the closest lamp post.
Oh - thats right, nobody of heard of him, (Atlas Iron chairman) so it doesn't get sensationalised in the news for the eastern states population.
The point Gina, Mr Flanagan, Twiggy, the CEO of Qantas and many many other non-front bench ALP ministers is :
Australia is riding on the back of the resource boom in iron ore, coal and LNG
The costs of developing and extracting these resources has ballooned in Australia, due to many factors including red and green tape, taxes and wage demands
The benefit of investing in Australia as a stable, safe and secure location is now out weighed by the additional expense and it is now more economical to invest in Africa and other places, even with their downsides (which include things like long shipping times to markets, instability, low skilled workforce etc. etc.)
Without some reduction in red tape, productivity, wage rises etc. Australia will not compete and so will no longer ride on the back of iron ore, coal and LNG, and these industries will go the same was as Australian manufacturing.
Developing nations are working hard to address their issues, why isn't Australia doing the same ?
Not one of them are saying wages should be $2 per day for a Queensland coal miner.
But a rich person being down on a poor person grabs more headlines than the real issue.
And Gina's point seemed to be that that very fact about what makes headlines in Australia backs up the argument for the failure to actually do anything to address the issues at hand.
Roy Hill Mine is investing $10 billion into the Australian economy for construction alone. It costs the Aussie tax payer nothing. It will take 2 years to build.
The NBN is investing $40 billion into the Australian economy. It is costing the Aussie tax payer $40 billion. It will take 12 years to build.
Why is the NBN construction so vaunted by Wayne Swan as the saviour of the recession but anything Gina does is shouted down under parlimentary priviledge ??
I don't think I like the lady, or how she lives her life. But that doesn't mean I have to attribute things she never said to her, or have some sort of pathological hatred based on my own predudices and warped perceptions of the world.
Keep in mind that although Australia has union, high wage, red tape beuracracy issues SA has some major issues as well
The company where the miners got shot a couple of weeks ago are now in serious financial trouble. Lot of restructuring of their debt etc. They may go to the wall over this one as it could be the final straw for them.
SA also has the problem of a huge turnover and retraining their workforce due to most of their workers having a short working life due to aids. Read some figures once and it was truly staggering.
Then there is the bribery and corruption issues which are endemic to that area.
With all Aussie mining issues and high costs we are still seen as a reliable cost effective supplier to the world, we just have different issues other wise the chinese would stop buying our gear.
And the she whale will keep getting richer, fatter and making stupid coments as she answers to no one except the mirror.
From my experience on mines all over the world I supply my own coffee as usually the BHPs and RIOs of the world tend to supply international roast and cheap nescafe ****e which just sucks.
W
Im still not convinced we are falling
More just levelling out which is not a bad thing. Won't hurt us to take the foot of the pedal for a while and take a breather. The stuff will still be in the ground there is no hurry. It may even weed out a few of the $150000 truck drivers who may realise the FIFO is not for everyone and they can go back to Rockingham or wherever they come from.
We may even not have to bring in the overseas labour for a while
Unions will maybe reavaluate their crazy demands and some reality can be restored for a while to the system.
Im watchin what is going on over here in the Philippines with their mining and it is gonna end in tears very soon. They are just stripping the hills and destroying the area crazy stuff. Im on a mining project here and it is just wild.
W
I also heard she also eats puppies from the orphange for tea and flies a Cabrinha.
STOP THE PRESS
I think i may have found a connection to this 110m baby that has been
shrouded in secrecy in china at the Cab factory
HEH - TONTO - U listening -- slow the horse & carriage down
Read the title.
Sure I could paint roses or drop _rap about an individual to what point?
Play the ball not the player - much more constructive.
The point is who advises her?? -
She went into battle with FAIRFAX - and came out smelling of???
She goes into battle on an Family trust and comes out smelling of???
She can change public policy (think labour laws).
She can/has moulded the direction (were relevant) of state policy.
She can head up a company capable of using less than a hand full of fingers when telling the ATO to back off (not much company reporting).
The point I make - is - why be so simplistically _____? - it does not add up to a good look.
Mrs Reinhart has a unique position in Australia where public opinion (frequently fickle) has at times such easy and rapid transition to -
an outcome -
(think cattle export ban to Indonesia - really a Homer moment DOOOH),
or opinion -
(think Gillard stabbing Rudd in the back (I think he self-imploded)).
She will likely always be championing something which will improve her lot (thru' business).
I have no problem with someone being rich or extremely rich. The proviso is that they spend hopefully constructively. At a point (long past in Mrs Reinhart's case) it is not the money but the power and the status.
Does the speech court power and status ?
Nah - poor advice IMO
AP (lunch break over)
Soooo... all yous on mining jobs are being paid too much? It's come from the horse's mouth.
Or is it red tape and "Julia"? Some of the pay packets I've seen mentioned are frankly ludicrous. It's odd that it is usually the same people complaining it's the government's fault, and their ludicrous pay packets will soon end.
All this at the same time prices for the goods drop. What a coincidence. Who could have seen that coming? (Henry?)
Im not overpaid I earn my money and sleep well at night thank you.
as for who advises VaGina. I would say only herself and the mirror as I said earlier.
W.
I'd be happy to be paid $2 a day if my accommodation cost me ten cents a day, my food cost me twenty cents a day, my recreation cost me fifty cents a day and my taxes cost me thirty cents a day.
However we live in 2012 Australia.
The $150 000 dump truck diver mentioned way up at the top of the thread. Go to Perth airport early morning and watch the Rocky crew getting on the plane to Gina's mines in their fluro gear.
Probably generaliising but the tatts the 17 yo bogan wife in the tracky's and ugg boots with the new kid hangin off the tit. most definitly scream Rocky to me. Sorry to offend but just seems ironic to me with Gina employing the very crew she moans about.
W
There seems to be a rather large chunk of stereotyping occurring in your post originating from Pinoy
She whines and moans and whines and moans and yet STILL invests billions of dollars in Australia. Why doesn't she just buy some African mines??? Or South American mines??? Is it because despite the high wage and environmental costs there are actually some advantages to investing in Australia - a high quality workforce, low risk of political conflict (or out and out war), massive deposits of mineral ores, low "facilitation" (bribery) costs.
It's a free world Gina - no-one is forcing you to stay invested in Australia - you'ld probably find a welcome reception in Nigeria.
The truth is that Gina's mining business is not creating anything new ( besides pollution).The staff that get dig out lay there for a million of years and once is finished - is all gone.
Don't need to be Marxist to understand that underground resources and minerals in this country need to feed all population at reasonably fair rate.
So far distribution of that benefits is already screwed -so high wages at least partly compensate and allow to transfer wealth to other sectors.
There is big difference in enterprise ie Bill Gates created producing wealth from nothing material, or manufacturing magnates like Ford that add value in the process, even farmers where activity is sustainable...
Gina should feel lucky that at this social development stage people are still so naive to tolerate her...