Rudd is trying to free-up interstate migration so that people will move to WA and QLD and work in the mines. He is telling the states to harmonise skills training and reduce stamp duty.
The big headline in the Weekend OZ is Rudd's 'reforms to extend boom'.
Did you see what they did with the headline there? They (Rudd and the OZ) are re-enforcing the message that the mining boom will end, the message the used to attack Howard for economic complacency, but at the same time they are acknowledging that it's a good thing for the country and they are dutifully extending it. Both halves of this message are pure bullshit.
The mining boom is not going to end. Not soon. Not ever. Australia is one big mine the size of a continent. The demand for our resources is only going to increase internationally as living standards in third world nations continue to rise. That fact that the mining boom refuses to do what the ALP wants, and end, is causing the ALP problems (and not just with their credibilty).
The problem for the ALP, and their real motivation for these 'reforms', is that labour market restrictions in the booming mining sector are threatening to increase wages and inflation beyond sustainable levels, thus forcing the RBA to increase interest rates. This wont end the mining boom, but it will end the economic boom we were enjoying under howard, and the boom in ALP support at present.
To that end Rudd is tryng to free-up interstate migration so that people will move to WA and QLD and work in the mines. He's called on the states to decrease stamp duty. I think stamp duty is a sin, but I have two problems with this policy: The states wont do it without demanding cash from somewhere else, and stamp duty is not significant compared to the pay-increase you get working in the mines.
Either you are gonna to the mines, or you're not.
The big thing keeping people in unproductive jobs is other states is that they ARE PAID TO MUCH TO SIT ON THEIR ARSES BACK HOME. They are in highly unionized workplaces, or sitting on the dole.
People don't want to work in the mines because they dont want to work.
If the stranglehold of the unions on building sites and other manual trade areas was loosened, pay would go back to market rates. Then there would be some incentive to get off your arse and earn a better living in a sector that actually contributed to the economy in proportion to the costs involved.
I'm sick of people cruising out of school at year 10, refusing to use their brain their whole lives and still expecting to live like kings. Fuck you you lazy shits!
If you want to earn big bickies working with your hands go and work 12 hour shifts in the middle of the desert. Move more than 5 kms from the beach you bums!
This will of course never happen under the ALP, because these unionist blue collar bozos are running the country again. Well not really. They never run anything really. They just intimidate the brain-workers who are smart enough the manage all the variables into throwing them a bigger bone. Without university trained managers, engineers, marketing staff etc to run the show for them these slobs would have jobs at all.
Call me elitist. Whatever. I dont care. I'm a democrat, I know that much. Everyone should vote and be equal before the law. Countries are way more stable, livable and less currupt that way. In that abstract sense people are equal, but i dont pretend that we are all as smart as each other. That is an egalitarian lie.
We all have our ways of contributing (those that choose to contribute, that is). Everyone's contribution is valued. The main way this is valued is measured in dollars. Some contributions are more valuable than others. That's just the way it is. I dare anyone out there to deny it.
The economic systems that have a future are the ones where people get paid according to the free market value of their contribution. That is not 'economic extremism'. That is the definition of fairness - ie you get what you deserve.
Fairness is equity. What the ALP wants is equality - of pay. That is socialism: a 19th century idea, tried and tested and rejected in the 20th century. It's a new century, ALP. We all need to lose the shoulder chip, get off our butts and do some work.
While these policies to 'extend the mining boom' are laudable as individual policies, the motives given are bullshit and they wont make any difference to the labour shortage in the mining sector. Labour market tightening will remain until someone has the courage to continue with Howards IR reform agenda. The ALP we fiddle at the edges but as trade unionists they will never fix the problem.,
