probably going to open a can of worms here, and apologies for a long post
i wasnt questioning the backing up of our allies, my point was more the fact that a majority of the population could see that the said wars werent entered into on their original intent. does anyone recall the original intent on the war in afghanistan? wasnt it meant to be something along the lines of outing the taliban and capturing osama bin laden. then it got changed to be chasing these elusive "weapons of mass destruction". im not denying the fact that the guys over there at the moment (and in the last 2 or 3 tours over there) havent done a half bang up job of decreasing the size of taliban forces. where did this war go on a tangent to - iraq. when was the last time the us went into iraq? gulf war. who was in power then? george bush senior. to me it reeks a bit of "finishing the war daddy couldnt". and what did it achieve? yes, saddam is gone, but look at the effects it had on their economy and way of life too..........
Agreed on the way the US and Europe have dealt with their economic downturn. they could see it coming but must have covered their eyes in the hope that "if they cant see it, its not happening". However, the way our economy relies on the US and Europe, to put it as bluntly as my old man did earlier in the week "if the US or European economy gets a cold, we nearly die from it". The money handout idea is good IMO, but it could be better planned with the way its handed out in some regards, Hey, no denying i could do with that cash, as it would help cover a few tight spots im in, but i could survive without it
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Agreeing on the fact about small business, ive worked with a small business too remember (and still do on a part time basis). Tell me how labor is doing its best to screw them over? by getting rid of workchoices? what a joke THAT was..........being a union member as well, we still partly suffer under the system that got implemented (it took us 6 months longer to negotiate an EBA than ETSA did to negotiate theirs because of bullshit paperwork and a heap of stuff the union wasnt allowed to negotiate on). i know some people are here nor there when it comes to unions, you either like them or you dont. They're a voice for the worker when they're getting screwed to the wall, and ive used them on MANY occasions when being screwed by upper management (as an apprentice, when the main government body wasnt interested in helping me out). If i hadnt been a union member id probably be flipping burgers at maccas today. But this isnt an argument, thought id just bring up something good that labor has done, going back a step and using the IDEA of workchoices to IMPROVE the system that was in place (that was getting a bit out of date)
Also everyone seems to think that the car industry is going to hold up here too, Im not trying to cast a negative light, but this "4 cylinder car" they want to pump out of the elizabeth plant is going to be a make or break for the company. Sorta like the 380 was for mitsubishi. Got a mate who does work in a heap of manufacturing plants, and he was telling me that morale at elizabeth plant is as low as it was at mitsubishi about 18 months before they shut their doors. for their xmas shutdown, theres usually 90 techs on, doing preventative and reactive maintenance. the recent xmas break they had 24 techs for the whole plant, only doing reactive maintenance
I grew up in the 90s andrew, so i do remember a fair bit of it. i grew up in a household where both parents had financial backgrounds (mum had worked in the commonwealth before i was born, and dad worked for savings bank / state bank / bank sa for 28 and things like this was often discussed so i had some understanding about it. a lot of it baffled me at the time, but over the years ive gotten a better understanding. i still leave it for people who know their stuff, but its still handy to understand a bit of it. We did many a study at school on the issues that were at hand at the time too. I see what you're saying, but both sides have their follies too. Theres positives and negatives with everything. It goes in ups and downs, its just coincidentally unlucky that labor is in power when it goes DOWN
I have this debate every time i go to army. The defence budget is always discussed. To put it simply
Under a coalition government (notice i say that as the liberal party cant rule in their own right when they ARE in power) we get to go on a lot of overseas trips (ie, theres been operations in afghanistan, iraq, timor, etc) but you tend to do it with substandard equipment (as all the budget was spent on the trips)
Under a labor government, we may not get to go away as much, but the budget is well spent on better / new / updated kit. I am within the corps or Engineers. In the C-Vehicle fleet (heavy machinery), there is being a substantial amount spent (okay, not that our reserve unit will ever see any of the gear as its given to operational units, but its an example) BTW, none of this information is classified, its all public knowledge as the tenders for these have been done thru the Defence Department
Purchases:
19 Komatsu PC50-MR light excavators (with rock breakers, compactor, auger, ripper and 300, 600 and 1200mm buckets)
28 Caterpillar 434E Backhoes (with attachments)
8 Self elevating Scrapers
24 Self propelled Rollers
plus the replacement of the fleet of Cat D3C light bulldozers
As a rough figure, there would be about $1m in equipment in our reserve unit yard (just in machinery), plus trucks etc as support. Most of the equipment is aging BADLY (our old Cat 130G grader was replaced with a new JD 672D 2 years ago, the Cat was 26 years old!) mainly because of lack of use, but the problem workshops are finding is repair costs for old machines skyrockets due to parts being unavailable.
So seeing it from my perspective, we requested new machinery 5 years ago (ie the stuff mentioned above). All we got in the interim was 20 John Deere 672D Graders and 20 John Deere 650J bulldozers. And they gave one to us! Needless to say, we've worked them hard so that we can keep them and make sure they dont get taken from us. Yet in the next 12 months theres talk of taking ALL our equipment away and hiring instead. You could argue im about to contradict myself, but they would rather spend MORE money "dry hiring" machines than BUYING and having sitting around. Its a good idea, as you have constantly maintained, up do date machinery that when you arent using it is getting used elsewhere, not sitting in the elements for 11 months of the year looking good.
I think id rather trade in (a green version of) this
http://www.equipmentready.com/upload/produ...THUMB_51018.jpg
to be in one of these
http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/...mp;d=1149814753
