Albo Needs Marketing

[old man emu]

Hall served as Leader of the South Australian Government Opposition for two years before leading the LCL into the 1968 election. Hall immediately set out to deal with the issue of electoral reform. Deliberately inequitable electoral boundaries, called the Playmander, had greatly advantaged the LCL over the past 40 years. Since 1932, the House of Assembly had 39 members—13 from the Adelaide area and 26 from country areas. However, by the 1960s, even though Adelaide accounted for two-thirds of the state's population, a vote in Adelaide was effectively worth only half a country vote. Hall was highly embarrassed that the LCL had been in a position to win government despite winning 43.8% of the first preference vote compared to Labor's 52%. He was also concerned by the level of publicity and growing public protest about the issue. This made him all the more committed to the principle of a fairer electoral system.

 

Hall sponsored an electoral reform bill which expanded the House of Assembly to 47 seats, including 28 in the Adelaide area. It fell short of "one vote one value," as Labor had demanded. Nevertheless, it was a much fairer system than its predecessor. Hall undertook this knowing that it would considerably strengthen Labor's hand. Hall's political bravery in introducing legislation to reform the House of Assembly to a more equitable system of representation should not be underestimated. It ranks as one of the few instances in Australian political history when a politician initiated a reform knowing full well that it would put his own party at a disadvantage.

 

The Playmander was a gerrymandering system, a pro-rural electoral malapportionment in the Australian state of South Australia, introduced by the incumbent Liberal and Country League (LCL) government, and in place for 32 years from 1936 to 1968. The word Playmander is a portmanteau word derived from the name of Premier Sir Thomas Playford and the political term gerrymander, and was coined around 1971 by political scientists Neal Blewett and Dean Jaensch of Flinders University.

[nomadpete]

Wow.

 

I can no longer claim that Australia's never ever had a politician who actually puts ethics ahead of self interest!

 

Thanks for the info.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Joan Child comes to mind as another

[Bruce Tuncks]

Tell us more please Jerry. I sure liked OME's story about Steele Hall and I remember it from the time now it has been told properly.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I think Albanese was the minister in charge of CASA when they did awful things to Jabiru and he didn't lift a finger to help.

Neither did scomo or any of his lot. A pox on them all say I.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Re Joan Child, I will do some more empirical research, but I lived next door to her when she was the member for Henty and the speaker of the house. As the speaker, she couldn't vote except to break a tie (not sure it happened during her tenure).. but as a young 16 year old, she invited me into her local electorate office to see what MPs did "on their days off".

 

I was in awe of what she did.. Pensioners who were being thrown out of the property they rented for years because the new landlord wanted to jack the rent up to eye watering levels - she was on it. Homeless people being unfairly targeted - she was on it. Working class people being made redundant without proper compensation -she was on it. She worked tirelessly trying to right a lot of wrongs. At the end of the day, I said to her, she turned me off being an MP.

 

A lot of MPs (on both sides of the house) do a lot we never see or hear about. I believe those that are not at the upper echelons are mostly decent and want to do the right thing... that is why they aren't at the upper echelons.

[facthunter]

There were politicians who got into it. You need engine experts, not Politicians or CASA Lawyers. CASA handled that abominably, but others didn't help including some RAAus types. . Nev

[old man emu]

8 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Re Joan Child,

No wonder she was fighting for the underclasses. She was a True Blue Laborite from her youngest days.

 

https://labouraustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/child-gloria-joan-16271

[Bruce Tuncks]

I liked Albo's latest thing about buying Australian. He implied that the federal govt would just about mandate that govt depts did this .  Just imagine if CASA had to fly Jabirus or jabiru-engined planes exclusively. Of course, they would divert many resources to trying to weasel out of this. I for one would be trying to counter their nasty arguments.

Of course they (albos lot ) have to win the election first.

[old man emu]

Nationalization refers to the action of a government taking control of a company or industry, which generally occurs without compensation for the loss of the net worth of seized assets and potential income. The action may be the result of a nation's attempt to consolidate power, resentment of foreign ownership of industries representing significant importance to local economies or to prop up failing industries.  Nationalization is more common in developing countries. Privatization, which is the transfer of government-run operations into the private business sector, occurs more frequently in developed countries.

 

A developing country is a sovereign state with a less developed industrial base and a low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. The World Bank classifies the world's economies into four groups, based on Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. Australia has a high GDP due to the sale of its mining and agricultural exports, but compared to the total from those sources $63252 million in 2021, manufacturing  was down the list at $28736 million. GDP from administration was twice that of manufacturing, and from construction, nearly three times as much.

 

We have been suffering the effects of international exploitation since Macarthur took the first bail of wool to England. Take petrol for example. The Australian Motorists Petrol Company, simply known as Ampol, was incorporated by Sir William Gaston Walkley in 1936 in New South Wales. This was in response to Australians' concerns about perceived inequitable petrol pricing, and allegations of transfer pricing by foreign oil companies to limit their tax liabilities in Australia.

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I like the plan, too.. But for me.. the devil is, as always, in the detail.. and well, at least on the ALP website, there isn't too much of it. Of course, they would be crazy to offer little more than tidbits and steal the high ground on policy announcements too early as it leaves them wide open to attack..

 

But I have been thinking - how would a policy work? There is focus on train building and defence industries - particularly development. But how does the government go about it? Is it just Aussie made, or Aussie owned, as well? If Aussie made, well, we were goingto make subs; we are making Boeing military UAVs, etc. If it is Aussie owned, then how are they going to stimulate a rapid enough development of a local owned and operated industrial base, while enticing the still big brain drain from O/S to run it all. It is a noble intention - but the details are going to be interesting to se.

 

 

4 minutes ago, old man emu said:

Nationalization

Watching too much American TV, sir? (just kidding).

[Marty_d]

One way you do it is to control what you can - government equipment.  For example, if there were a start-up electric car company in Australia (we have the technology and the expertise) then the federal government could mandate that the entire fleet of government cars will be Australian made from Australian materials.  This would encourage competition in the sector.  The added bonus is that you then have a supply of second hand electric cars about 3 years down the track, which increases uptake in the general population.

We already make excellent light armoured vehicles here - the Bushmaster and the Hawkei - yes it's a French company but it employs a lot of Australians.  There's no reason we can't do a lot more here.

[facthunter]

COR was Commonwealth Oil Refinery   name self explanatory. Now it comes from Singapore (TAPIS) WE had a Commonwealth Bank now privatised and no better than the other BIG Banks. How does selling off the Grid and power stations to foreign powers help US plan what we want? There hasn't been a single coat of paint on any  of the "POLES" of the electricity system in VIC since Jeff Kennet sold if off years ago.  Nev

[Yenn]

All those things we used to do are gone now and we import inferior products to replace them.

Railway locos with asbestos on them leading to delays and costs. Shipbuilding just gone except for lightweight stuff up to ferry size. Steel that is poor quality and weldability is suspect. Wind turbines that are cracking. Aircraft manufacture, just killed by government.

I can't see Albo doing any good, but he may try, which is far more than PMT will do.

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, Marty_d said:

government could mandate that the entire fleet of government cars will be Australian made from Australian materials.

Governments used to "Buy Australian made" for their vehicles. Then the manufacturers based on our Besty's Land of the Free, pulled out quicker than Roger the Lodger and left us with no market for the things they bought from Aussie manufacturers - seat belts, transmissions etc. 

 

For a long time chrome/moly tubing for rag and bone aircraft build or repair has been suspect if it came from China. 

 

Australia currently has four fuel refineries that commenced operation between 1949 and 1965. Australia had seven operating refineries in 2010–11 (two refineries in Sydney—Clyde and Kurnell that closed in 2012 and 2014 respectively—and Bulwer Island in Brisbane that closed in 2015). Around twenty years ago, Australia had eight refineries (with another at Port Stanvac in South Australia that was mothballed in 2003) which met virtually all domestic fuel demand.

 

Less than one month after provision was made in the 2020–21 Budget for the design and implementation of a market mechanism to support domestic refineries, BP Australia announced it would cease fuel production at its Kwinana Refinery. Once this refinery is wound down over the next six months, Australia will have three remaining fuel refineries. The continued reduction in refinery numbers has implications for Australia’s liquid fuel security.

 

Domestic oil production is not currently sufficient to meet Australia’s total demand for fuel, even if all of it was refined domestically. A lot of production is condensate (a very light crude and by-product of national gas production).  As a result, most of Australia’s refined fuel products are either directly imported or refined from imported crude oil feedstock. The risk this poses to Australia’s refining industry has been recognised for more than a decade, including in previous National Energy Security Assessments completed in 2009 and 2011.

 

As refineries close, domestic refining capacity and capability reduces and Australia becomes yet more dependent on imports of refined product. Having fewer refineries reduces Australia’s ability to refine fuels if shipping and supply chains are ever severely disrupted for any reason in the future. While industry sees no problem with relying on fuel imports via a diversity of supply chains (which has increasingly occurred over the last two decades), other analysts continue to question how the Government will keep the country and the Australian Defence Force operating ‘in the event of a foreign interruption to fuel supplies coming from foreign owned refineries on foreign owned ships’.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I agree about the devil being in the details, but just suppose an Australian manufacturer like Jabiru was stiffed and missed out on a government sale.

Surely they should have a complaint path?

I would have an Ombudsman to hear such complaints and, if upheld, I would sack the perps.

[facthunter]

Those conditions can only be applied when a similar local product is available. The generally stipulated "lowest quote" can cause big delays and losses and a lousy end result if the original successful tenderer goes broke and has cut corners along the way. . Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

The generally stipulated "lowest quote" can cause big delays and losses and a lousy end result if the original successful tenderer goes broke and has cut corners along the way.

What can you expect when "lowest quote" gets the job? In order to reduce costings to the lowest level, you have to make cuts somewhere. You employ unskilled workers. You set unrealistic time lines. You use inferior quality products. You don't pay your suppliers. Then you skim the cream, and a lot of the whey for yourself. When the smelly stuff hits the air circulator, you simply declare your $2 company bankrupt in the morning and start another that afternoon.

 

Who assesses these quotes? No bureaucrat can have the knowledge to know the ins and outs of every project to be able to tell if data making up the quote is realistic. Is it any wonder that the tendering process for any public works is wide open to rorting?

 

ScoMo is shitting blue lights about the thought of an anti-corruption commission looking into the Federal government.  Sure, there is likely to be a few big fish taken hook, line and sinker, but if you look at the NSW ICAC reports, there are many more small fish that are being netted.