Bailing out the Biggins

joe6pack Uncategorized


ford

Ford Australia announced that they are going to shut up shop in 2016.

There has been much anguish in the media and from blogs about how bad this is.

Everything and everyone has been blamed from the Carbon tax ,tariffs Government etc.

Ford are closing shop because they have failed (IN AUS at least) to keep up with the changing car market.

Not Many people these days want a big gas guzzling V8 or even a V6 that are more expensive, less fuel efficient and less well built than what you get from overseas markets and sold next door in dealerships and sometimes by the same dealerships.

I am mainly talking about cars that come from Asia now.

The stigma that Asian cars are somehow inferior is well and truly in the past. They are well-built, efficient, comfortable, and mainly much cheaper.

In effect, with the Asian cars you get very good value for your dollar. Stick with an Aussie build and you are paying for the name and get an inferior product.

We must face up to the fact that we do live in a global world now. People know it and spend their money wisely on what they get for their dollar – not some patriotic rubbish about buying Australian.

Buy Australian by all means if the product is as good and the same or close to quality but I am not going to buy a dearer, inferior product just because it is Australian .

So Ford announces in a very roundabout way that they are going to close manufacturing in Australia in 2016.

Approximately 1600 people will lose their jobs.

Sad, but at least they have had warning – and if past experiences are anything to go by, those workers will be offered incentives (i.e. cash) to stay with the company until it does close. Otherwise, everyone will be looking for another job and Ford may close earlier than expected due to lack of staff .

At least they have gotten a fair amount of warning that they are going to be out of work,

What about the people that turn up to their factory and find the gates locked by administrators? Or the bloke out driving long distance who gets a phone call 2000 ks from home saying you can go as far as what fuel you have left then find your own way home as the fuel cards will no longer work?

Where is the public angst ,media outrage and the political promises for these poor people?

Where is the cash for “retraining”? The counsellors to help them through? The extra payments so the PM or whoever is in power looks like they care?

The big companies when they go bust get all the media. But no one seems to care about the little companies.

This a failing of both major parties – Labor and the Coalition – and the announcement by the PM that the government is going to throw millions at 1600 workers that at least have 3 years before they are out of work is vote buying at its most obvious.

Doesn’t matter if it is Labor or the Libs – it is still wrong.

Both Ford and General Motors (the American owners of Holden) have sussed out that Australia is no longer a viable, profitable market for them.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

In my little way I used to buy exclusively American equipment, but have now purchased a European vehicle and am kicking myself that I didn’t buy one sooner.

Ingrained prejudices in industries are hard to break, but government bailing out old useless industries should stop.

1,140 thoughts on “Bailing out the Biggins”

  3. NBN asbestos reaction a ‘beat up’ says Rob Oakeshott

    Includes this gem from Emmoo –
    ”The previous government knew all about it, and did nothing about it,” cabinet minister Craig Emerson told Sky News on Tuesday.

    Fairfax Media says the giant telco wanted to create an independent body to accelerate compensation and sought approval from the Department of Workplace Relations in 2001.

    However, the department, then under the ministerial leadership of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, rejected the plan.

    ”He’s the guy now complaining,” Dr Emerson said.

    ”This is nothing more than a way of attacking the national broadband network by the coalition.”

    Paywalled, but just Google…..
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/nbn-asbestos-reaction-a-beat-up-says-rob-oakeshott/story-e6frgaif-1226656802035

  4. Sarah Wiley ‏@SarahWiley8 Clive Palmer doesn’t believe in most polls… well besides his ones.. says money is paid to get results the funder wants

    George George ‏@OverTheHill4
    @SarahWiley8 That is the most truthful thing Clive has said so far in this election Polls only reflect what vested interests want #GoClive

  6. Just been in the car for an hour, and of course I listened to Hadley.

    He is in FULL outrage mode over asbestos.

    He said that it’s a serious issue, a “deadly serious” issue.

    “If you live near an NBN pit and you get one flake of this horrible stuff into your lungs, you will die in 40 years. THAT’s serious.”

    There were no ifs or buts. One “flake” and you’re dead.

    It’s the perfect scare campaign: you can’t prove whether someone’s got asbestos in their lungs, and everyone who does have it dies – but 40 years later, when Hadley won’t be around to rant and rave.

    Someone phoned in with some facts. I paraphrase her here:

    “Firstly, asbestos doesn’t come in flakes. It comes in fibres. A semantic quibble, I know, but it shows that Hadley hasn’t been doing any reading – because all the reading he could have done would have been in terms of “fibres”.,

    Secondly, the rate of death by asbestos for people occupationally exposed to it – asbestos workers, conctruction and demolition workers up to the 1980s etc. – is 3%. THREE PER CENT.

    One fibre in your lungs is NOT a death sentence. Of course you could die from a single fibre, but the chances of this are infinitesimal.

    Every day we have cosmic rays passing through our bodies. They damage DNA. Mostly our bodies eliminate the damaged cells or they die of their own accord. But eventually, one of these cosmic rays may cause cancer.

    Most people over 50 in Australia have asbestos fibres in their lungs. They don’t all die from asbestos related disease.

    The plain truth of the matter is that walking around outside in anything other than a lead suit exposes you to as much or more danger of dying from cancer as asbestos does, for those not occupationally exposed to it.”

    This is what the caller WANTED to say, but Hadley cut her off mid sentence, mid the FIRST sentence actually, by shouting over her and telling her to tell that to the mesothilioma sufferers that he has “personally” visited in hospital.

    Yes, mesothilioma sufferers apparently compound their agony by listening to Hadley on their death beds. Gluttons for punishment, I suppose.

    This is perfect material for a scare campaign becauser the consequences are exaggerated and very few people alive today will be around to check the outcomes.

    So it can be ramped up as much as the Hadleys and – to their disgrace – the ABCs and Murdochs – of this world like to ramp it up.

    This is only a “debacle” because the media have decided it’s a debacle. The journalists are all talking to each other about the politics of it, without any sensible, rational discussion of the facts. They are more interested in outdoing each other with scare tactics about what might, conceivably happen, but in reality has little, next to no chance of happening.

    One last delicious bit was that Hadley took on Bolt over this issue and called him a “Boofhead” for his comments last night. I heard Bolt last night and wrote a short post on it at 8.24pm. This was my precis f what Bolt said:

    Government owns asbestos. This is another Pink Batts. Where s the asbestos? We don’t know. Shorten writing a letter to Telstra is a wimp out. He should be sacked.

    An asbestos audit of Telstra is WAY over the top and is typical of his government’s over-reaction to everything. Just protecting unionists.

    We have freedom in this country and if you get killed by asbestos then it’s Buyer Beware. Don’t go out in the street if you’re scared.

    The government is using spin and deceit to try to prove they care about asbestos, but they care too much and will enmesh us in red tape.

    Essentially, Bolt was “reported” to Hadley for saying that “caveat emptor” should apply to asbestos and that the reaction from the government was a beat-up.

    Hadley went ballistic. I’d like to see Bolt’s rebuttal. In fact I’d like to see these two bloviators go at each other hammer and tongs.

  7. It’s a conspiracy, not any sort of accident, this media thing. But it’s long past the point of requiring any supervision as it’s just been encouraged & enforced groupthink for a long time. Maybe Phil Spector had something to do with its inspiration, the Wall Of Negative Bullshit.

  8. Labor MPs are often disconcerting and create a sense of disunity within the Party. With regards to the election funding I heard S Jones on LL, I think, say that the timing was bad and the process was not duly followed. G Brotdmann, on Capital Hill, used exactly the same words. My question is, why did they query the PM and her team’s judgement instead of criticizing the LOTO’s cowardly backflip?

  9. BB
    You bravery in listening to Hadley deserves a medal.

    If Hadley and Blot got together to go at each other hammer and tongs they’d generate enough hot air to power a small town for a few days. That is, if their heads didn’t explode first from all that faux outrage.

  10. gigilene
    That is an excellent question. Labor MPs miss too many opportunities to have a go at Abbott. This one was a gold-plated gift and they ignored it.

  11. I’ve been out and about this morning on various errands, and will be hitting the road in an hour or so for some more, plus meetings.

    However, I did catch the 10am news on ABC Classics FM, and to my surprise the newsreader said, of the 2% PPV to the Coalition, that it was within the MOE!

  14. The only political polling that is verifiable is the polling done on or near to election day.

    All the rest of the polls outside near-election day polls are unverifiable, except by comparison with other polls.

    Today’s Newspoll is way out of kilter with other polls as evidenced by Bludger Track, hence it is most likely a rogue.

    QED.

    Kevin Bonham (over the road) cites the accuracy of near-election day polls as being due to:

    * People have made up their minds.

    * Larger sample sizes.

    I’d like to add a third possibility, or more accurately, rehash Kevin’s two reasons into one:

    * Polling companies know their reputations are judged by these near-election day polls and put in a special effort.

    The corollary of the last point is that polls outside the near-election period are much less rigorous. In fact there is no evidence to contradict the notion that they could be rigged.

    Not every time. But once in a while.

    Given that the companies that use polling for selling soap or cosmetics only judge near-election polls as indicators of pollng accuracy, there is no downside to rigging polls, and plenty of upside (just look at today’s “Newspoll Furore”). The fact that today’s Newspoll is different to the trend has been lost in the screaming and shouting of dommsayers. It’s disappeared into the white noise of polemic.

    We know that Murdoch attempts to rig elections, by providing blanket negative coverage to any party or politician he does not like. This is indisputable.

    The man has admitted as much himself, many times, as well as the proposition being self-evident from any fair analysis of his coverage.

    The question is would he stoop to rigging polls – which he owns – in order to achieve the result he wants?

    The feedback look goes like this.

    1. Murdoch journalists write negative coverage.
    2. This negativity spreads to other news organizations.
    3. Murdoch papers repeat the derivative negative coverage.
    4. The Murdoch Line becomes the only story in town.
    5. A few punters are influenced by this.
    6. The polling company calls.
    7. The malleable punters dutifully report negatively.
    8. The resulting polls are used as evidence of 1. above.
    9. Repeat as often as required.

    If 7. above does not eventuate, then what is to stop Murdoch’s private, in-house polling organization from massaging the numbers – only a couple of per cent is required – to achieve the result in 8?

    No-one would ever know.

    The near-election polls can still be run honestly, but the mid-term polls are ripe for rigging.

    Taking Murdoch’s self=professed reputation into account, you’d have to be a mug to completely dismiss the proposition that some Newspolls do not reflect reality, and deliberately so.

  15. Now is time (is it too late?) for the government to stand up and pointedly and forensically DESTROY the media beat up of Abbott’s (Peta’s?) disgusting and cynical asbestos scare campaign.
    They must go in full on!

  17. And with Abbott’s latest “run away” from a presser the government should really ram up the “Abbott is a gutless, policyless coward” attack. It should be unrelenting.

  19. Little wonder if Hadley and Bolt line up on opposing sides on asbestos. Hadley simply wants to with the flow: to follow the Murdoch line and stop the NBN. But this piece may provide some clue where Bolt is coming from
    http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/blue-murder-at-wittenoom/

    Lang Hancock and CSR were in it up their ears, with knowledge of its risks. Hancock’s companies were still involved until 1993, well into Gina’s time. I’d say that Gina needs this issue beaten up like she needs another leak from her children over their inheritance squabbles. Bolt, as we know already, may work for Murdoch but he is Gina’s pet with the TV show.

    Aside from a Hadley-Bolt war,this might also drive a wedge between Rupert and Gina. It is certainly not an issue she wants beaten up.

  20. Now is time (is it too late?) for the government to stand up and pointedly and forensically DESTROY the media beat up of Abbott’s (Peta’s?) disgusting and cynical asbestos scare campaign.
    They must go in full on!

    Which of course they will do… in Question Time… which will not be reported except if there some cute gotchas from Abbott, and then they will be televised lasciviously.

  21. bk asbestos pits have been around since home phones,

    was there a time when phone lines where on polls, not sure about that one,

    but to say that’s some one fault diid we not have the liberals in for 23 years or something like that at one stage in our
    lives this is when then should of been checking quality control

    then we had howard for 11 years did they do any inspections who knows
    there
    was here or over there a post from hansard
    mc gruren was questioned by the late Peter Andren around 2004
    some one may be able to find it,, there is a lot there about asbestos
    and telstra

  22. BB
    I agree. QT alone is insufficient. It must be at every presser or similar opportunity. They must challenge the journos to concentrate on the facts and on policy analysis. Publically belittle those that won’t (or can’t). It must be relentless.

  26. dunny
    From ruawake over the road.
    “Abbott blames his Dept for Asbestos and Telstra he will not comment on it.
    And he runs away….”

  27. “Abbott blames his Dept for Asbestos and Telstra he will not comment on it.”
    Yeah, that’s right Tone. They’re only public servants and we all know they are useless!

  28. I guess it’s easier to be an attack dog when you’re in the Opposition. You tend to be more on the defensive for some reason when you’re in government. Except in QT where the PM and the MPs usually perform really well. But it’s outside QT hours – programmes like “Capital Hill”, “LL”, “730 Report” during which the attack should continue. But it doesn’t. I’ve also noticed that very often Ruddists are guests on those shows.

  31. The Sir Humphrey thing is a little overdone but until ‘Dave’ the PPS and spokesman for the UK PM was always a senior Civil Servant.

  32. help

    was it here or over there that apost was up re handsard
    and a question from the last peter andrin. to Mcguren in 2004 about
    asbestos.
    I wrote to bill shorten office about it and they have ask me to send it
    sadly I thought I put in my favourites

    \HELP

  36. It’s very tempting to see the current political contest as a battle. There are many aspects of this metaphor that are applicable. Cut, parry, thrust, loading rifles, hurling grenades, retreats, stumbles – you get the idea. But there are two aspects of this battle that are being misrepresented.

    The map of the battlefield, as it is presented to the public, depicts the advancing line of the Coalition penetrating Labor territory because that’s the ‘vibe’ of news reporting backed up by relentless opinion polls. Any moment now the Labor forces will cut and run, a mutiny that will see their current leader put up against a wall. The Coalition troops will swarm all over their enemy, putting them mercilessly to the sword. Wrong.

    The accurate way to measure territory gained is to examine the legislation and reforms that have taken place during Labor’s time in government. If Abbott wins a majority in both Houses then some of this land will be lost in a frenzy of repeals and regressive legislation. That’s a big ‘if’. If Abbott only wins a majority in the HoR then there will be a fierce rearguard action in the Senate to stop him slashing and burning the young crops sown by Labor. As things stand right now, Labor has plonked its flag in Climate Change, Industrial Relations, Health, Education, Information Technology, Social Welfare, International Relations and the rude good health of our economy. This is the real ground that has been gained in the last five or six years, not the screaming headlines about incompetency and the worst government ever.

    The second aspect of battlefield analysis which is being grossly misconstrued is the idea that opinion polls are indicative of the body-count for each side. Ooh, 58-42, they’re slaughtering us! Well no, they’re not. Labor have lost one Minister to his own incompetence and one media advisor who shot himself in the foot through not paying attention when cleaning his rifle. A number of discontented senior officers have been sent back from the front line because they showed an unwillingness to follow orders. They can shuffle papers back at HQ. They are not casualties inflicted on Labor by the Opposition. In fact, try as they might, the LNP have not caused one fatality. Thomson and Slipper are gravely wounded but still able to load and fire their weapons.

    We must stop viewing territorial advances as only those things that are reported in the headlines of newspapers and by talking heads on broadcast media. We know that the opinionistas have agendas and that they will report accordingly.

    We must stop treating opinion polls as body-counts. They may be indicative of the mood in the electorate but they have no predictive abilities and, even retrospectively, every Labor Member is still standing.

    There is great cause for optimism. Labor will soon declare the Summer Campaign at an end and will desist from attempting to take new ground. Instead they will dig in (if they’re not already doing so) ready to repel the onslaught that they know is coming. Which brings us to the current anomaly. Why would an army that has been assured of victory, reassured daily that the enemy’s supply lines are cut and that they will starve this Winter, why would they continue to throw soldiers into No-man’s-land? Why continue to fire off their big guns in the hope of bringing about victory before the first snows fall? The only answer can be that the LNP know that the way forward is peppered with mines and that the Labor leadership that has confounded and outflanked them for three years is not going to lie down and die.

  39. Brilliant post, NormanK.

    As good in its own way as your superb Abbott video. You’ve added to the star quality of our posters.

  44. And Ian carves it out in bronze, as he so often does. A bit more pain yet to endure, but no worse tan what we have to date. And it will get better.

    Nothing really worth while was ever won cheap.

  45. Snap on that GL. It’s a bit unfortunate (actually it’s damn outrageous) that Rudd followers unload like that.

    We need more like Perrett that get on with it.

  46. Back again, still fighting the fight on twitter. The only poll I believe is the one on the Sept 14. I still am hearing lots of chatter that is anti-Abbott here. The facts and the media story on most things still don’t gel and we ar not going to be the only people that see it. Policy wise the LNP have nothing. In fact there whole campaign is to either go backwards or do nothing.

    The thing that keeps me going everyday is one simple image. The price on that Fox fuckwits face as Romney bit the dust. The incredulity written across his face was priceless. That’s enough for me to keep up the fight.

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