The farming situation in Goulburn Valley - possibly changed

[Bird]

... I'm split on this one... I'm more on the side of it being a ****ing stupid decision.. but that is something I've come to expect from Abbott. or Rudd.. or Gillard, or any polly infact.

On one hand we are and have been propping up industries (automotive etc) for so many years - something has to change. It has with cars - Toyota will go next.. another 20,000 jobs.

But on the other hand, there isn't many other employment opportunities out there for people in this and other rural regions. Apparently the Vic Gov has $5million ready to invest in *finding* industries to replace the cannery - so they must know that the doors are going to close, as they are already prepared.

The Gov pisses 25 million up the wall a week on crap.
How about cutting handouts to other countries for a week (or few years I'd like to see)
how about cutting back on perks for ex minsters etc that are just on the sponge now - just cut them off.. if they don't like it - firm faeces.

Then invest in these peoples jobs. But then again how long until they ask for another hand out.. its not like Coca-Cola Amatil are broke.

Give it 10 odd yrs, and what industry will be left in Australia

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/goulburn-valley-fruitgrower-fury-as-government-rejects-25-million-funding-request-20140130-31pqy.html

[weeds]

yeah gotta agree the writing is on the wall for a lot of industries.......unfortunately the standard of living and wages we expect is making it difficult for business in Australia, I would rather pay more for product if we lifted the import taxes (or what ever it is called) to bring the playing field a little closer

I am on the fence with handouts..........i'm sure it is more complicated than what is presented in the news.....

goods friends of mine are diary farmers.........its an eye opener when you listen to how much they are paid per litre of milk and the contracts they have to sign

[doc evil]

Agenda 21.............

[terravista]

I agree on the mixed feelings.
Millions have been wasted on the car industry, and maybe the Government is finally learning not to throw bucketfulls of cash at companies.
However, it would be a balancing act on the money.
If Coca Cola Amatil funded the $25 million needed, I would have thought there would be a tax write off on a portion of that, which effectively costs the taxpayers. If the employees were retained, they would be paying personal tax, and there would be no need for unemployment costs.
These are assumptions, but if only 1000 employees stopped paying $3 000 a year tax, and cost taxpayers an average of $20 000 in unemployment, and the write off for the expenditure from Coke was $3 million, the $25 million needed to fix the place up would be covered in 12 months.
There may well be more information not being handed down to us mere mortals, although it is hard to believe the press is not accurate.
Maybe the paper bag full of graft has not found the right person?
Fully agree on stopping overseas aid for a short time. Let the milk cow generate more milk rather than run it dry and kill it.

[Bird]

If Coca Cola Amatil funded the $25 million needed, I would have thought there would be a tax write off on a portion of that, which effectively costs the taxpayers.

Sorry forgot to add - Coke are putting in an additional 90 million if the Aust Gov/Vic Gov dished in 25million each...

[achjimmy]

the removal and reductions of tariffs have a lot to answer for, yes some tariffs needed to be removed but others never. Countries such as china have unbelievable restrictions on trade, so it ain't a level playing field. As for wasting money on the motor industry or other subsides it's not waste, but investment if done right. The trades and 2nd and 3rd teir suppliers that have skilled up, Companies that once supplied the motor industry now make medical equipment.

The sad part is our government are now full of dumb people, not just pollies but the crats that make the decision. Look at the golden era of Australian manufacturing (ww2 and beyond) and manufacturing decisions were made by industry leaders advising the government.  As for subsides all countries do it, even the Germans, tax free zones etc, just needs to be done smart and successive governments haven't done that. The worst case was recently when ford announced they were closing the Geelong engine plant (2008?) and Rudd jumped in with millions to save it. Not one bright spark realised that Ford couldn't continue the current platform without that motor? They were played. Again during the GFC the $$$$$ given to the manufacturers instead of giving a cash back on Aussie built cars as in incentive to buy, it would have stimulated dealerships as well. They just don't think.

[gordo350]

Why is Australia the only country in the world that sticks to the rules.  They all sit around and make anti dumping laws then when the other countries break the agreement we just cop it and say we have to be more competitive.  Makes me sh1t sideways how stupid we are. And the industry leaders benefit from this to the detriment of our future

gordo350

[gordo350]

Just let me be in charge for 12 months.  That's all I'd need. 

gordo350

[Bird]

Agenda 21.............

Interesting reading.. would explain the massive increase in cancer rates over the last 20 yrs.

[doc evil]

Interesting reading.. would explain the massive increase in cancer rates over the last 20 yrs.

More interesting reading if you want....

Club of Rome..............again

[Foo]

yeah gotta agree the writing is on the wall for a lot of industries.......unfortunately the standard of living and wages we expect is making it difficult for business in Australia, I would rather pay more for product if we lifted the import taxes (or what ever it is called) to bring the playing field a little closer

I am on the fence with handouts..........i'm sure it is more complicated than what is presented in the news.....

goods friends of mine are diary farmers.........its an eye opener when you listen to how much they are paid per litre of milk and the contracts they have to sign

Yeah how many people would work for $5 an hour or less?

Australian politicians are weak as p iss and try to be seen as leaders of free and open trading system and carry on about an equal playing field, what a crook of No 2s. 

None of our trading partners except for NZ I think, have nil levies on imported stuff. Gullible bunch of wankers. 

Foo

[Brumbypt]

encourage more people to buy local by reducing taxes a bit and increase them on imported food.


Peter,
iPad with IOS 7.0.4 using Tapatalk HD

[Garfish]

Yeah how many people would work for $5 an hour or less

Foo

Most likely Farmers

[johnno48]

Coke bought SPC for its profitable fruit juice product, not the cannery

[02-SR5]

Why should the tax payer fund a company that is being ripped off by their own unions.

How much did coke a cola make?

I am sick of companies of blaming the government.

The current crop of pollies have been there for a little while, how long has SPC been there?

I do agree, we need to stop cheap imports, blame Woolies and Coles for that.

[GeoffA]

........
I do agree, we need to stop cheap imports, blame Woolies and Coles for that.

If people stopped buying them, they'd stop importing them.

[berlitza]

maybe the underpreforming execs should take a pay cut and support the company instead of asking for hand outs then giving themselves a juicy pay rise from it, its always us  the blue collar workers that get screwed because of unrealistic expectations, just a matter of time before spc gets folded up and shipped off regardless of a handout or not

[Barry G]

Why should the tax payer fund a company that is being ripped off by their own unions.

How much did coke a cola make?

I am sick of companies of blaming the government.

The current crop of pollies have been there for a little while, how long has SPC been there?

I do agree, we need to stop cheap imports, blame Woolies and Coles for that.

How exactly are the 'unions' ripping off SPC Ardmona?
I heard Abbott talking a lot of cr@p about that this morning in relation to the existing Enterprise Agreement at SPCA.
One of the key issues he focussed on was the redundancy provisions.  This demonstrates how little thought he has given to what he plucks out to justify his ideological position of "blame it on the workers".
Redundancy provisions have ZERO impact on recurrent costs if employees aren't being sacked. So, in the context of retaining staff this would provide NILL additional $ to re-equip.
Improved redundancy provisions, which inevitably come as part of a package of slightly lower wage rises, are valued by employers because they reduce immediate increases in wage costs and can be insured against for future risk - just as occurs in relation to sick leave.Sensible workers and responsible union reps also support this trade off, as it provides long term workers with a 'hedge' against being laid off in th future.  It is a genuine "win:win".
Had such a stupid statement been made by a Labor or Green spokesman they would've been pilloried by the media, and rightly so, but a PM from the 'Party of Business' gets away with it, because the Fibs supposedly have 'economic expertise'.
A sad joke at the expense of a country community which doesn't fit the stereotypical image of rural Australia.

In the absence of support by the Federal Government I would like to see the following:
1/.  State govt still kick in $25 million.
2/.  SPCA sell $25 million in equity to the Industry super fund that covers AWU members.

Money is then available to re-equip the plant, workers have a stake in the plant through their super fund and the agreement could allow for either 1st right to buy back by Coke/Amatil, after an agreed number of years, or for the fund to sell into the open market.

There are positive solutions involving workers which don't necessitate attacking their wages and conditions, however this PM and his Ministers are not sufficiently unprejudiced to conceive of them.
I have never been a fan of Sharman Stone, however e on this occasion I recon she is spot on, and congrats to her for being so passionate in defence of her local community.

And yes, I have being consciously buying Ardmona tomatoes etc for several years.

[dmax13]

I have to agree, with why should we prop up a multinational corporation that can afford to reinvest. The issue is very complex as we have also had a very strong Aussie dollar which has made the imports even cheaper. The unfortunate part is that as household budgets have got tighter as a result of the increase in necessity spending (electricity and food), CPI has been understated by the cheaper electronics and holidays. In addition many people over the last number of years have not been getting pay increases and working less hours which makes the budget tighter. This all means everyone is looking to save money including the companies where they can, price is a big factor for all less likely to pay more for Aussie grown and made.

There is a bigger underlying issue occurring in Australia, with the shutting of the cannery where will the farmers be able to sell he fruit. Only so many places you can go to a farmers market to buy the produce, which then means more farms accept a lower price to the supermarkets or to an exporter. With a reduced price to the farmers and increased costs, how long will the farmer be able to stay on the land. The next question is who is going to buy it, as we are now don't have a big enough market , so either it is sold to foreign corporation (government) or it is subdivided.

So until we realise that in Australia we will need to have protected strategic industries (US heavily subsidise beef, Japan rice, China does it through Quotas) and we will have higher prices for those products or we will continue to lose these industries. Unfortunately in Australia we don't have a big enough market domestically where we have high labour costs and trying to compete with the developing nations.

So in short do what we already do in this group, enjoy the 4wding and the camping put the money back into the local towns we go to visit and encourage more people to do it responsibly. Last thing Australia needs to invest in Australia as many of our companies are now foreign owned it does make it harder.

Cheers

Sleepy

[Barry G]

I have to agree, with why should we prop up a multinational corporation that can afford to reinvest. The issue is very complex as we have also had a very strong Aussie dollar which has made the imports even cheaper. The unfortunate part is that as household budgets have got tighter as a result of the increase in necessity spending (electricity and food), CPI has been understated by the cheaper electronics and holidays. In addition many people over the last number of years have not been getting pay increases and working less hours which makes the budget tighter. This all means everyone is looking to save money including the companies where they can, price is a big factor for all less likely to pay more for Aussie grown and made.

There is a bigger underlying issue occurring in Australia, with the shutting of the cannery where will the farmers be able to sell he fruit. Only so many places you can go to a farmers market to buy the produce, which then means more farms accept a lower price to the supermarkets or to an exporter. With a reduced price to the farmers and increased costs, how long will the farmer be able to stay on the land. The next question is who is going to buy it, as we are now don't have a big enough market , so either it is sold to foreign corporation (government) or it is subdivided.

So until we realise that in Australia we will need to have protected strategic industries (US heavily subsidise beef, Japan rice, China does it through Quotas) and we will have higher prices for those products or we will continue to lose these industries. Unfortunately in Australia we don't have a big enough market domestically where we have high labour costs and trying to compete with the developing nations.

So in short do what we already do in this group, enjoy the 4wding and the camping put the money back into the local towns we go to visit and encourage more people to do it responsibly. Last thing Australia needs to invest in Australia as many of our companies are now foreign owned it does make it harder.

Cheers

Sleepy

Sleepy, the farmers will be ripping out their trees and the industry will be dead.  This is already occurring with the reduction in cannery production at SPCA anyway.

However why exactly is this 'more important' than loss of canning jobs, or other processing jobs associated with rural production?
Why is a 'farmer' being out of work any more tragic than a shearer or a cannery worker?
They - I.e. "WE" - are ALL Australians with families to support and anyone losing their livelihood is tragic for both their family and the broader community.

[dmax13]

Sleepy, the farmers will be ripping out their trees and the industry will be dead.  This is already occurring with the reduction in cannery production at SPCA anyway.

However why exactly is this 'more important' than loss of canning jobs, or other processing jobs associated with rural production?
Why is a 'farmer' being out of work any more tragic than a shearer or a cannery worker?
They - I.e. "WE" - are ALL Australians with families to support and anyone losing their livelihood is tragic for both their family and the broader community.

B&B, I didn't mean to imply that a farmer being out of work was any more tragic. I also agree that it is tragic for all directly involved and indirectly.  Your absolutely right we need to support all the groups affected.

Living in Newcastle at the time when BHP closed the steel mill and the number of people affected was far greater than just the workers at the mill. In fact at the time it was for each job lost in the mill it was 4 other jobs that were lost in the supporting industries. That is a lot of families affected, those that were at the mill got treated a lot better than those that were in the supporting industry (many did not get any entitlements).

I was more commenting on the flow on effects throughout the broader community and into the longer term future for all Australians. You highlight my point about the industry dying, what will replace the industry, this is the plan we do not have as Australians. 

[Pog]

Surely CCA was going to close the plant anyway - they just wanted a free kick on the way out. Just like Ford & Holden. If a business is unprofitable, what difference is $25 mil? If the business is worth investing in, CCA would have already done it.

SPCA has been dying for years, as have the orchards around it... It's very sad, but true.

The Riverland lost its cannery (Berri) many years ago. The juice factory shut down about 5 - 6 years ago, and at the sametime, the regions largest transport company shut down due to loss of business from the juice factory. Whilst it is sad, why does the govt need to step in? They didn't step in for Berri, or Fletchers in our area... Businesses shut down every day. Fact!

Australian agriculture is struggling against imports, and whilst we produce very high quality fruit and veg, it is hard to be competitive on an international market with our wage and shipping costs.

[SteveandViv]

Why should the tax payer fund a company that is being ripped off by their own unions.

How much did coke a cola make?

I am sick of companies of blaming the government.

The current crop of pollies have been there for a little while, how long has SPC been there?

I do agree, we need to stop cheap imports, blame Woolies and Coles for that.

So agree with that. Stop the cheap imports and stop hammering the farmers. I am happy to pay for Ausie stuff and as I now live in WA, WA stuff. Half the time the big supermarkets don;t even stock a local item cause all the ignorant idiots don't give a sh1t, they have no idea what they are doing buying the cheap stuff so what hope do we have

[xvprado]

In the absence of support by the Federal Government I would like to see the following:
1/.  State govt still kick in $25 million.
2/.  SPCA sell $25 million in equity to the Industry super fund that covers AWU members.

why not just give the 25m direct to the likes of the CFMEU organisers and Craig Thompsons girls, save a lot of mucking about 

Serious ?.....................give the union controlled super fund 25m equity for no benefit ??

Protection of aust jobs needs to be a priority, we should do that by starting to understand we ALL have our snouts in the trough

Workers, Unions and so called managers need to agree the party is over and there is some serious reassesment of our potential as a country to be done

Having witnessed first hand the ideological based destruction of an industry by Unions who thought they were more important than their members, Im a bit of a cynic

[speewa158]

Will the last worker in manufacturing in Australia , please turn off the ern , close the windows & kill the lights