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Qantas has been a very privileged and protected Airline many times during it's long History. Also some questionable management. Nev.

They don't all run around pretending to be the Spirit of Australia. Nev

Yes. The cost of tunneling underneath the Blue Mountains would be astronomical. The problem is that the terrain rises sharply from the relatively flat Cumberland Plain on one side of the Hawkesbury River to the steep rugged country at the opposite bank, and continues to rise about as far as Katoomba. Emu Plains at the start of current road is 90 ft AMSL and Katoomba is 3335 ft AMSL. They are separated by 33 kms in a straight line. All the way from Penrith to Lithgow there are deep gorges and ridges which simply can't be lowered to fill the gorges. There is no direct line between Emu Plains and Lithgow that isn't affected by the same landscape. Because of the occupation of the land along the present road, it is virtually impossible to construct a multi-lane road all the way.

Th QANTAS (or iIMHO, QANTARSE) shipping 840 jobs off to India (and hiding the fact there was an AI element) seems to hve created a bit of a backlash. But this is not the first time they have done it and won't be the last. In fact, the earliest I know of was in the mid 90s with Telstra offshoring a lot of its information technology jobs, too. So I asked chat to generate me a table of private and publicly listed Australian companies that have off-shored jobs from Australia. Its context response is: "I’ll consolidate this into one table and distinguish four measures: Australian roles transferred, offshore staff hired to support Australian operations, proposed transfers, and jobs brought back onshore. I’ll exclude global headcounts unless there is evidence they serve Australian operations." Here is the table: So offshoring not necessarily that bad, but look at the second table - People they outright hire overseas to support Aussie operations. .which means rather than create the job here, create it somewhere else. Also, note that there are a couple of offshoring initiatives I know of that are missing, so this is an understatement. Consider there are no resource/mining companies in that mix. And the QANTAS maintenance outsourcing.. So, I would suggest the numbers are a lot higher than the above and a decent more number of companies Also consider that there have been foreign takeovers of Aussie companies that may have shipped jobs O/S before the takeover but certainly did afterwards. And this does not include foreign companies.. e,g, IBM and the like, which no doubt take work in Australia (e.g. build government department a bespoke system) and then ship the work to a low cost destination. I am not saying IBM have done this... it is hypothetical, but it is a good way for the government to get the benefit of cheaper overseas resources without directly offshoring its operations. So, I get the backlash against QANTAS. But, there is a lot more doing and have done so for a long time, And I bet QANTAS are betting, like the backlash when they exported maintenance jobs overseas, it will all die down and because they have the lion's share of the capacity in Australia (airport slots/gates), it will blow over and not materially impact the bottom line And, no other copany on the above list seems to have suffered as a result of that they have done..

A tunnel through the Blue Mountains is going to cost a Pretty Penny. Is everyone ready to pay for it somehow and it will take while too. What is done in the Meantime? Minns does seem a bit "all over the Place".Nev

i have asked for this post to be removed. i don't want to get into another shitfight with a left loony

china may end up being a more stable superpower especially since they rely so much on global trade. look at the lunatics running the other 2 super powers, who would you prefer.

Ouch, Excessive speed definitely a factor. If it's a t bone, likely the cruiser pull out in front of bike. Sad. Generally it's biker dies and car driver is unhurt.

What is it with motor cyclists? An idiot doing over 200kph T-boned a Landcruiser, tipping it on it's side and killing the driver, as well as himself.

Yes, that's a type IA-double here, commonly just called a double.

vicroads will only pay claims if they are over $1600 and even then i don't think anyone gets paid, they just drag it out for years.

semi-dolly-semi. in wa we called them pocket roadtrains. not b doubles. mainly being used for container and recycle waste transport on major routes down here.

It makes a complete joke of flying around with Spirit of Australia written on their aircraft when they couldn't give two hoots about employing Australians. Sacking Australians because they can squeeze more profit by outsourcing to India hardly fits with what would be thought of as Australian spirit. I like Jerry's idea. Tax any company that outsources labour. A Qantas boycott is needed to give the greedy clowns the message. Show some loyalty or we don't fly with you. They made an after tax profit of 1.29 billion.

The management is using AI as an excuse/scapegoat but the biggest driver is executive bonuses tied to profits. Short term decisions for personal gain. Spirit of India would be a better logo. They've lost me.

Brendan, do you mean Type 1A-Doubles, not B-Doubles?

they build highways properly in the pilbara to handle 200 ton roadtrains. fantastic roads there. they also handle huge rainfall at times and blistering heat . admittedly the iron ore industry is a good incentive to build such good roads.

double road trains are running everywhere on the east coast now.

The QANTAS lay-offs begin next year. The problem is that not only are current jobs being lost, but the ability for Australia to train our young people in AI development. In other words, the loss of jobs is alo a massive brain drain.

Actuyallk my gripe about the route over the Blue Mountains relates to the fact that the Minns government sput the stoppers on the tunnel, yet they will spend billions on roads criss-crossing Sydney. I can bitch and carry on about time taken to do the trip, but after nearly five years doing it, I know how long the different sections take to travel and where I can stop for refreshment. But I'm not counting the economics of teh delays that poor road causes. I should really be bitching about what those delays cost me when I go to my local supermarket to buy my Weet Bix and frozen veggies. Not to mention the extra cost for other goods that have to be transported from the coast. Those costs must be playing havoc with the viablility of so many businesses west of the Divide. In that video it mentions the multi-lane road on the western side of Mt Victoria which was supposed to form the exit to the tunnel. The road bypasses the locality of Little Hartley. A few years ago a business started there selling lollies. It did alrigh until one night it was struck by lightning and the shop burned down. So the owners rebuilt and re-opened, still doing a good trade. The the bypass opened and traffic no longer goes past its door. I believe the business now gets a lot of its sales on line, as well as from the trade of people who knew it before the bypass and are willing to pull off the main road to shop there.

There is an alternate route. It means going on the Golden Highway towards Newcastle, then down the M1 to Hornsby then the M2/M7/M5 to my journey's end. Accordning to Google Maps that involved 6 h 31 m drivng time. which is about an hour more than what it used to take me when the route over Mt Victoria was open. That time also depends on traffic flow on the M2/M7 stretch which can be a bitch in the afternoon when I would be going through there. I suppose I should go that way next time. I'm bored shitless going down through Mudgee and Lithgow. But that route takes 5h 30m and is about 100 kms shorter (that's 7.5 litres of fuel in my car).

If you had Taipans there Marty you'd want to be wearing leather pants. They have a bad habit of rearing up and striking passing vehicles. I've had one strike at a Toyota at the top of the wheel level. Tiger snakes up here do the opposite. With an approaching vehicle they do a big aerial backflip and go in the opposite direction.

You don't HAVE to go that way. Nev

The Managers don't care about that. More about the value of their shares. Announced just before Christmas. Nice timing QANTAS. Nev

Yeah - data centre proponents keep saying that AI will increase productivity. That's great for shareholders. They never mention that this will come at the expense of jobs. What's the point of great productivity if the population is unemployed?

Saw my first snake of the summer today - just avoided running over him on the bike, which could have been nasty for both of us.