The broader Asian countries look at us like a retarded child. We have a country with pretty well every natural resource yet we are a trillion dollars in debt. When you look at Singapore, Japan and South Korea that need to import pretty well every resource yet seem to be doing very well, I can see what they mean. We only have ourselves to blame. For many,many years, the unions have been controlling wages to the point where we cannot compete in the manufacturing world. It appears unions would rather send a company broke and lose all of their members jobs than be realistic. They don't seem to realise we need to compete on the world stage. I know people are of the view that without unions we would be earning 300 baht a day, and to some extent that is true. However there is a large disparity across the country and industries for people doing the same job. I have attended many industry seminars and talked to many people. 15 years ago an electrician in my industry would be on a base rate of around 70,000. An electrician at an onshore refinery in Victoria was on $120,000 for exactly the same job. Anyone who watches the news over a number of years will see a pattern with teachers and nurses. Not begrudging their income but time after time one state union will say their members are the lowest paid in the country. Next year another state says the same thing and gets a raise. After five years the first state again says they are the lowest paid and the cycle continues. I won't even start on the missing 15 billion dollars from Victoria's big build, that every Australian will pay for.
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