Play Nice Politics #3 - Covideo killed the radio star

[thirtytwo]

Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden Cars no more...

You can thank the good economic managers for this.

Hockey dares GM to leave

The federal government has accused GM Holden of ingratitude and effectively issued the company its marching orders, increasing speculation the car maker’s departure is now a mere formality.

www.afr.com

 

[Doc_]

You can thank the good economic managers for this.

Hockey dares GM to leave

The federal government has accused GM Holden of ingratitude and effectively issued the company its marching orders, increasing speculation the car maker’s departure is now a mere formality.

www.afr.com

It was the unions.
You cant keep manufacturing at a loss and sticking your hand out to the government. The unions thought you could.

 

[StonesThrow]

It was the unions.
You cant keep manufacturing at a loss and sticking your hand out to the government. The unions thought you could.

It was a lot of things. Paying workers a bit less would have only prolonged the inevitable.

The only way they were going to be viable was finding an export market. The mining boom put an end to that idea.

 

[kirky]

Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden Cars no more...

Just as there are now they will get imported and badged as GMC, Buick etc.

No big deal as it was inevitable. Personally have never actually owned a Holden, was a Ford man myself - Escort, Laser then XR6 (a few times).

 

[Mutineer]

You can thank the good economic managers for this.

Hockey dares GM to leave

The federal government has accused GM Holden of ingratitude and effectively issued the company its marching orders, increasing speculation the car maker’s departure is now a mere formality.

www.afr.com

Absolute and total bullshit!

The only reason GMH pulled out of Australia was because it was no longer viable to manufacture motor vehicles in Australia without Federal Governments tipping in a shitload of subsidies to prop them up. That, and the fact that Australians were no longer buying their products and the high cost of manufacturing their product meant they had very little overseas export market.

Perhaps you'd like to explain the other vehicle manufacturers that closed down their Australian manufacturing plants whilst the ALP was in Government while you're at it.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Trump's an egotistical arsehole absolutely no doubt about it but the opposing Democrat candidates are hardly going to enthuse anyone either....it's beggar's belief that these are the best of the best Democrats they could rustle up. Personally I don't see the people that didn't vote last time racing out to vote for the likes of Sanders 79, Biden 77, Warren 70, Bloomberg 78 etc, let's face it Trump would be unelectable if not for the lack of a decent Democrats candidate.

Democratic field is lacking in charisma. They would have more chance of winning by running a celebrity candidate like Dwayne Johnson for President imo.

I think the best way to beat Trump would be to use his own strategy against him. Find celebrity that people like, create a slogan that anybody can understand and stick to it mercilessly, create a platform designed purely to make your opponent look weak, always use simple language etc.

 

[Mutineer]

It was the unions.
You cant keep manufacturing at a loss and sticking your hand out to the government. The unions thought you could.

Morrison slams Holden exit after $2 billion handout

The Federal Government has lashed out at General Motors for “walking away” from the Australian market and killing off the iconic Holden brand after accepting billions of dollars to keep its operation afloat.

www.news.com.au

In 2013, it was revealed the car manufacturer had been gifted a staggering $2.17 billion in subsidies over just 12 years to help keep the thousands of jobs ticking over.

 

[Mutineer]

You can thank the good economic managers for this.

Hockey dares GM to leave

The federal government has accused GM Holden of ingratitude and effectively issued the company its marching orders, increasing speculation the car maker’s departure is now a mere formality.

www.afr.com

Morrison slams Holden exit after $2 billion handout

The Federal Government has lashed out at General Motors for “walking away” from the Australian market and killing off the iconic Holden brand after accepting billions of dollars to keep its operation afloat.

www.news.com.au

Leading independent economist Saul Eslake said he had sympathy for the Government’s irritation but the diminishing popularity of the Holden brand coupled with its inability to evolve for modern consumers meant it had no option but to cease its operation.
“If they’re not selling enough cars for the business to be viable, I’m not sure that commercially they could have taken any other decision,” he told news.com.au.
“Over a long period of time they have not only received cash investments from the government but also tariff protection as well.
“But ultimately it comes down to whether or not the brand is popular with consumers and it would seem that over a long period of time it has become much less so.”

 

[thirtytwo]

Absolute and total bullshit!

The only reason GMH pulled out of Australia was because it was no longer viable to manufacture motor vehicles in Australia without Federal Governments tipping in a shitload of subsidies to prop them up. That, and the fact that Australians were no longer buying their products and the high cost of manufacturing their product meant they had very little overseas export market.

Perhaps you'd like to explain the other vehicle manufacturers that closed down their Australian manufacturing plants whilst the ALP was in Government while you're at it.

Truth be known it was the lifting of tariffs that killed local manufacturing, John Button (ALP) in 1985 started it.

However the major killer was the free trade agreement and lifting of tariffs negotiated in 2005 with Thailand by the LNP which really opened up the Australian automotive market and completely exposed our local manufacturing, so much so that Ford, Holden, Toyota and Mitsubish we’re importing Thai built cars at the expense of their own locally produced products and local workers.

Free trade agreements......all that shines is not necessarily gold.

This combined with the local manufacturers obsession to build large cars and not recognise that the market was rapidly changing to smaller, fuel efficient vehicles, is the reason Australian car manufacturing died.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

This combined with the local manufacturers obsession to build large cars and not recognise that the market was rapidly changing to smaller, fuel efficient vehicles, is the reason Australian car manufacturing died.

Is this really the case? Pretty sure SUV's are more popular now than ever.

 

[thirtytwo]

Is this really the case? Pretty sure SUV's are more popular now than ever.

Are all of these SUV’s 6 cylinders and v8’s?

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Are all of these SUV’s 6 cylinders and v8’s?

I dunno. I'm not a car person. I just thought the trend was for larger vehicles, not smaller ones.

 

[Mutineer]

Is this really the case? Pretty sure SUV's are more popular now than ever.

I'm not really a car person either but around the Ballarat and districts anyhow there are bloody heaps of SUV's and 4 wheel drives none more noticeable than around drop off or knock off time in the school zone areas with mother's picking up or dropping off the kids.....I'd estimate they outnumber the other vehicles 2 to 1.

 

[thirtytwo]

To

I dunno. I'm not a car person. I just thought the trend was for larger vehicles, not smaller ones.

To be fair you may be right, I suspect the only thing keeping Ford Australia afloat is the Thai built Ranger, but even this is a turbo diesel not a petrol 6 or v8.

 

[Mutineer]

Saul Eslake is generally the ABC's go to Economist guy so I don't think he'd be biased?

Morrison slams Holden exit after $2 billion handout

The Federal Government has lashed out at General Motors for “walking away” from the Australian market and killing off the iconic Holden brand after accepting billions of dollars to keep its operation afloat.

www.news.com.au

But Mr Eslake told news.com.au cutting the funding to Holden was the right call.
“It was becoming increasingly unviable commercially to continue producing in Australia,” he said.
“If the Government had continued to throw money at supporting the production of cars which were increasingly less popular we would have got to this point some stage or another.”
Knowing what policymakers know now about the doomed car manufacturing industry, Mr Eslake said dishing out so much cash was a mistake.
“With the benefit of hindsight, governments might well have done something different,” he said.

 

[Mutineer]

And btw dual cab 4 x 4's and 4 x 2's have seemed to be all the rage with tradies around here over the last few years.

 

[Mutineer]

Article by Australian Workers Union National Secretary Daniel Walton..

Why Labor must embrace nuclear power

It is not defensible for a workers party to run all the human risks of climate change when there is a solution sitting on the table.

www.afr.com

Why Labor must embrace nuclear power
It is not feasible for a workers party to run all the risks of climate change when there is a solution already sitting on the table.

In the wake of Australia’s catastrophic summer, Anthony Albanese became a magnet for left-wing anger.
Passionate progressives wanted the Opposition Leader to pull the gloves off. Get angry. Unleash a torrent of explosive truth bombs.
It’s unclear what Albo’s critics envisioned this would achieve. Labor, as you may have heard, lost last year’s federal election. The party, therefore, does not occupy a traditionally strong position from which to call the shots.
But here’s the thing: the criticism that Labor could do plenty more on climate change action is actually right on the money.
In fact, since 2013 federal Labor has never been better placed to effect meaningful change on this issue. Right now, Albanese’s hand rests on a powerful lever that would immediately set Australia on a clear and direct path to dramatically reducing its carbon emissions.
This lever has been put in the Opposition Leader’s grasp by the Prime Minister and the Energy Minister, who have both repeatedly made it explicit they would be happy to pursue an Australian nuclear industry if it had bipartisan support.
So if Labor wanted to start a process today that would dramatically reduce Australia’s carbon emissions, the government has opened the door.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

It was the unions.
You cant keep manufacturing at a loss and sticking your hand out to the government. The unions thought you could.

That was only part factor.

Also didn't forsee market change for SUV's, so kept producing a type of car Australia was losing interest in.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Is this really the case? Pretty sure SUV's are more popular now than ever.

Correct.

Renault have stopped bringing in the Megane & replaced it with Kadjar SUV. Other brands doing the same.

Holden ignored the market & paid the ultimate consequence.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Apparently volunteer firefighter Paul Parker (Tell the PM to get f'ed from Nelligen) was sacked from the RFS.

Plenty out there making the assumption that the PM is involved, which is not surprising given his thin skin and inability to handle any criticism.

Turns out old mate wasn't being entirely truthful when he claimed to be apolitical. One Nation supporter.

"There’s only one person that cares about this country and that’s Pauline Hanson," Mr Parker told Nine News.

"Come and see us in Nelligen Pauline. Mate, you’re unreal, you care about the country. The rest of them don’t."

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/na...s/news-story/b923476dcd7f55711ab2e38f3b048137 (paywalled)

 

[LiquidCrow]

Turns out old mate wasn't being entirely truthful when he claimed to be apolitical. One Nation supporter.

I did see the disturbingly gleeful character assassin pieces being promoted by Morrison defenders like Chris Uhlmann. Regardless of Paul Parker’s views on Hanson it doesn’t diminish his work as a firey or automatically justify him being sacked for having a spray at the PM. The core issue here is one of civil liberties –people being punished for criticising the government is something that should be left to totalitarian regimes and not replicated here.

It also demonstrates that contempt for Morrison extends across the political spectrum. Both the Coalition and Labor need to work a lot harder to win back affected voters if PHON is being viewed as a viable alternative.

 

[Ron The Bear]

I did see the disturbingly gleeful character assassin pieces being promoted by Morrison defenders like Chris Uhlmann. Regardless of Paul Parker’s views on Hanson it doesn’t diminish his work as a firey or automatically justify him being sacked for having a spray at the PM. The core issue here is one of civil liberties –people being punished for criticising the government is something that should be left to totalitarian regimes and not replicated here.

It also demonstrates that contempt for Morrison extends across the political spectrum. Both the Coalition and Labor need to work a lot harder to win back affected voters if PHON is being viewed as a viable alternative.

It's not at all clear that he has lost his employment. The PM was a lot more understanding towards Parker than vice versa. And I'd suggest the recent fires haven't altered Parker's political persuasions. If anything it is probably a glimpse into the prevailing culture among firefighters.

 

[kirky]

I'm not really a car person either but around the Ballarat and districts anyhow there are bloody heaps of SUV's and 4 wheel drives none more noticeable than around drop off or knock off time in the school zone areas with mother's picking up or dropping off the kids.....I'd estimate they outnumber the other vehicles 2 to 1.

And most don’t know how to drive them either.

We are becoming like the US everyday with bigger cars, bigger houses, crap tv shows.

 

[the universal]

Is this really the case? Pretty sure SUV's are more popular now than ever.

Holden were relatively late on the SUV trend, for a while they were only really selling the Captiva (which was rubbish) and before that they pretty much just went with what was just a raised Commodore (Adventra). The oldest of the current SUV range has only really been around for about ~5 years or so.

It's a shame, I'm not a massive fan of the SUV love in Australia - would have loved to see a locally manufactured hybrid Commodore in a different world.

 

[kirky]

Morrison slams Holden exit after $2 billion handout

The Federal Government has lashed out at General Motors for “walking away” from the Australian market and killing off the iconic Holden brand after accepting billions of dollars to keep its operation afloat.

www.news.com.au

In 2013, it was revealed the car manufacturer had been gifted a staggering $2.17 billion in subsidies over just 12 years to help keep the thousands of jobs ticking over.

A pittance compared to the fossil fuel industries.