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”

  2. Thanks Puffy,

    As more of the policy stuff is becoming clearer I am thinking about booting up the policy sections of my website. I can’t do it on my own as I would need eyes and ears everywhere.

    I was thinking about couching it in terms of ‘challenges facing Australia’ and linking appropriate white papers, source documents,statistics and facts, but keeping it politics free and in point form as much as possible, allowing people to compare and contrast each of the parties including PUP and the Greens.

    I’d then like to make it go viral as much as possible leveraging everyones followers, friends and email lists (with you doing the sending).

    What do you think?

  3. Abbott opens the bowling on coalition’s plans for tax cuts! Talk abut dixer! PM gets stuck into him, especially his blunder about the carbon price being ineffective. POO overruled and PM continues the swat. Cites that all his claims have not come true. Throws in that he voted against Ford assistance. States the public can now judge from the facts.

    PM now gets a dixer from member from Reid, allowing her to wax lyrical about schools, NAPLAN and other special assistance. She’s on her home turf on this topic. Throws in how much Queensland missing out and turning up the heat on Cando. Charges Abbott with politicking on it. Not happy about Queensland falling behind. Gets a supp to finish off. And she rubs in the negativism and corrects some porkies out there. I wouldn’t try to nettle her today. But Mesma tries anyway, and she gets it over her boats porkies.

    Speaker boots two. Mesma gets up to try to correct her error with the Guardian . Denied.

  5. spacey,
    great idea!
    I am in.
    (Though I don’t do politics on facebook as it is my main dog search social media thingy.)

  8. Mesma slapped down good & proper!

    This Guardian Australia might just turn out to be an occasional thorn in the side of the Opposition.

  10. Garrett gets a chance to go for it under Gonski. I reckon their research is showing this is a winner. As he has throughout this season, Garrett is well on top of his portfolio and passionate about his topic. And pretty good at slamming Abbott, too.

    Now Crackers Keenan with a try on Boats/security to O’Connor. O’Connor startles with a single-sentence answer. Now a question/rant from Katter for Swan. Gives him a chance to outline assistance for farmers. Throws in that he needs more support from the States, and they’ve been dragging their feet. Doesn’t cite Qld specifically as States in general.

  12. NormanK @ 12.59
    Thankyou thankyou thankyou
    And to all you brilliant posters. I wish you were running the show.
    And thanks GD for your running commentary on QT – always insightful.

  13. Now Kirsten from Capricornia, with a dixer for Emo. Able to link schooling/higher education with trading position. Mentions that Queensland must sign up to remain competitive. Put the kids before the Libs!

    Now Crackers again. Still trying to wring something over that Egyptian refugee thing. This time O’Connor does go into detail about character tests and security. Nothing to make anything from here.

    O’Connor gets a nice dixer to follow up, on 457s. This is one the opps don’t like and he rubs in that it is pro-Aussie worker programs. Sinking the boot in on employer exploitation. On firm ground here and not even a gag attempt with a POO. Serves it up to them.

  16. Turnbull tries again for asbestos on Telstra/NBN. Turnbull booted for a smartarse POO. Member for Ashton booted. Anna’s cracking the whip!

    Mesma warned. Shorten finally resumes. No easy pickings here, Peta. Shorten now pretty rational and intelligent on it. Points out the government has a very strong record on asbestos safety.

    Now Tones tries a supp on the topic. Shorten opens with a bit of abuse, which gets him a warning. Now Pyney tries a POO by repeating their gotcha attempt. Now rubs in Abbott’s record of no questions before, and his sorry record on it when he was minister. Rubs it in about declining help.

    Abbott still tries a supp. He loves getting punished! Now Pyne up for a whinge just as Shorten was getting stuck in to their hypocrisy. Rubs in their complete failure in contrast to govt’s action. Now mentions Andren’s question. Here’s Bronny! Pointless objection, rather gently overruled.

  17. BK
    looks like we have five, maybe six.

    Pol Animal
    Georgous Dunny (plus 1 guest maybe)
    JasonRhand
    BK
    Puffytmd

    Danny can’t come this time and I have not heard back from crikey whitey but she had the flu pretty bad last I heard.

    At the moment we have only two for the wine tour so that looks like being off as I need five to book it.

    I booked a table for twelve so there is still plenty of room for extras and late-comers.

    If I have forgotten anyone please give me a cooee.

  18. It looks like Shorten’s staff took notice of denese’s email, he’s raised the Andren asbestos question. Well done Pubketeers victoria for linking it last night and denese for passing it on,

  19. Swan on a dixer mentions interest rates still on hold, as they have been under this government’s management. Mentions growth of economy and jobs. Now moving into education. The government is politically investing a lot into this in addition to the $. Now an annoyance about ABBott-Pyne trying to sabotage. Swan’s a lot more concise these days.

    Now another try on asbestos from Bradfield member. Shorten a bit more gentle this time, mentions how serious the risk is, and the govt’s record. Oakey booted? POO on relevance overruled. Opposition not going anywhere with this. Must be Rupert’s orders to continue. Shorten well in command.

  21. Now Cheesey with a dixer for Burke on oceans and the environment. Burke exposes a sham protest, enjoying himself. Their objections are to stuff that Howard had implemented. Burke defends against the vested interests. Cheesey gives him a supp. Burke sinks the boot in further. Not having a bar of oil exploration.

    Ah, now Fletcher Christianson with another attempt at Shorten. At least they’re spreading the misery around. Shorten takes it on good faith and elaborates on the safety aspects. Now Abbott tries a POO. He’ll get sat down, which he is.

    Now a dixer for Albo which includes local govt recognition. Mentions projects done. Have to leave now.

  22. wow Vicky will be happy I sent them the link here to
    hope u don’t mind,
    they where very nice he has good staff even chatted about the weather here

    I rant to make sure they saw the emil

    thank you leone I would never have found it only for you

  23. Posted “over the road”.

    I believe the BIG, BIG mistake Rummel, ML., CC., and the other laxett and laxettes make here is to underestimate just who is now in charge of the ALP. It is not some one or a group of “collegiate” brothers..it is one WOMAN…get that into your thick skulls and be afraid…: One WOMAN!
    The Prime Minister has had to not only endure the most gross attack on her and her gender these last three years, but she has had to carry into the office, as any woman always must bear, the preceeding years of smug derision, patronoising dismissal and sexist slander, from any number of weak males.
    If you stooges and little boys fondling with your “peenies”,think for a minute that this strong, supremely capable woman couldn’t wipe the floor like a spanking-new squeegie-mop with ANY of the opp’n and those of her own party who would lay claim to the thirty pieces of silver proffered by Aust’s enemies AND still have capacity to freeze-dry and mount the LOTO’s testicles on a formaldahyde forehead of Rupert M….then you have sure got something coming !
    I would suggest you “watch this space”!

  24. Pot meet kettle! Right wing channeling at its worst:

    Joe Hockey @JoeHocke

    Every Govt . answer in #qtime is an attack on Coalition. They have given up on governing….totally.

  25. Afternoon guys

    Been catching up on posts. Thanks GD and others for reportage on QT.

    Denese

    Well done on sending email of the link I got via Margo Kingston’s twitter last night.

    NormanK

    Wonderful post!

  31. https://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=hts&oq=&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4LENP_enAU495AU495&q=Ovid

    For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation).

    Ovid

    Latin Poet Ovid.jpg
    Imaginary depiction of Ovid with laurel wreath (from an engraving)

    Born
    Publius Ovidius Naso
    20 March 43 BC
    Sulmo, Roman Republic (modern Sulmona, Italy)

    Died
    AD 17 or 18 (age 58–60)
    Tomis, Scythia Minor, Roman Empire (modern Constanţa, Romania)

    Occupation
    Poet

    Genres
    Elegy, drama, epic

    ——————————————————————————–

    Influences[show]

    ——————————————————————————–

    Influenced[show]

    Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of poetry, the Heroides, Amores and Ars Amatoria, and of the Metamorphoses, a mythological hexameter poem.

  33. The Opposition are totally rattled today. They are getting smacked around the ears on every single question, theirs & Labors.

    The Parliamentary Press gallery are going to find it hard to ignore some of this stuff today, surely.

  37. Although it IS from a Bob Ellis column, this IS a point worth pondering.

    “Why were Murdoch’s polls so slanted toward Romney in the US?”

    The criminality of what Murdoch does with polling is plain from his polling in America. His polls always had Romney ahead, or competitive, by two or three percent more than the average of the others. And there’s no explanation for this other than corruption.

    Or were they? I must admit I didn’t pay too much attention.

  38. From The Pulse; enough rope?

    3:15pm: The cross bench – Tony Windsor, Peter Slipper, Rob Oakeshott, Andrew Wilkie, Adam Bandt and Craig Thomson – is all with the opposition on this one.

    Does this mean the opposition is accepting the “tainted vote” of Mr Thomson? It appears to be trying to negate his vote by putting MP Warren Entsch in the adviser’s box. Is it allowed to do this? Apparently so – I’m advised by a former staffer that the adviser’s box is not considered part of the chamber so Mr Entsch is not technically there.

    Further down the page, whoever polished the turd this morning for his hi-vis vest stunt didn’t polish his teeth – eww.

  40. Sorry BK. as I explained to Puffy….the driving from where we live and back again is just too far.
    We do go to the central market for a big shop-up once a month or five weeks and THAT is an all day affair!

  41. The take away feature of the American election was just how well Romney did in the polls as opposed to the actual election which earned Foz News the ire of Jon Stewart, Susie Madrak etc

  43. Why would the government filibuster if they believe the Opposition are playing for time? I don’t get it.

    3:28pm: Okay, this is getting complicated so bear with me.

    The vote was ayes – 67 – and nos – 73. This means, basically, that the opposition won. However the motion is not going ahead because the leader of the house, Anthony Albanese, has counter moved that it should not be heard (thus requiring a division). The government is filibustering because it believes the opposition is playing for time until Malcolm Turnbull can return to the chamber which would give it an extra number if/when there is a vote on the opposition’s original motion (which, if you remember, is to debate the Minister for Immigration’s handling of the case of the Egyptian man).

  44. Emo raising Mesma’s Indonesian misrepresentations as a matter of privelege.
    Prissy tries to stop it but Anna shuts the annoying little insect down.

  45. 3:35pm: And the vote was ayes – 67 – and nos – 74. It’s a moot point now, however, because the time for debate has expired.

    The PM calls time on question time.

    “The reason for the motion,” Anthony Albanese cries as Malcolm Turnbull reappears in the chamber (after his requisite one hour in the naughty chair).

  46. Slipper complaining about Independent Australia and others being excluded from the gallery on the basis of them being “opinion organisations”. Slipper says they are no more opinion based that the newspapers that are riddled with opinion.

  47. Now Albo to raise a matter of privilege re the OO’s page 1 story on Pyne (non) no confidence motion. He says that when the article was written no letter had been written so he is dobbing in Pyne telling falsehoods to the OO journo.
    Albo says the government intends to pursue the matter.

  48. Bob Ellis is generally taking out of his hat.
    There have been several state and territory elections here in recent times and they have been within the MOE.

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