As I flew into Australia, I was just overwhelmed by the vastness of the land. A lot of people, esp. Singaporeans, can't get over the sheer size of the place- they reckon that a trip from Brisbane to Cairns is about an hour by car, or the distance between Perth and Melbourne is similar to Changi and Jurong. LOL. Its a continent for crying out loud. Its take 3 days to get from Melbourne to Perth by train. Australia needs a lot of infrastructure development. Roads, dams, bridges, canals, electric cabling...
There are parts of this land which are dying due to the lack of water- yet there are other parts which are flooded. The country needs a system of dams, canals, reservoirs, and pipes.
The problem is that the cost of labor here is - relatively speaking- very expensive, and that hampers development here.
Here's an idea for my Aussie friends- it'd be great if your govt could allow companies to bring in temporary foreign workers (from India, Korea, China) into Aus to build the great infrastructure projects - who are happy to be working at a fraction of the cost. Its a win-win situation.
In Singapore even the Aussie construction companies here are employing cheap foreign labor to do the job.
Such a task is of course mammoth and would take decades to complete. But hey, rather than spending the money on useless stuff like the Melbourne Arts festival and dubious social welfare ventures - why not pour the money into the country. It will provide a valuable resource for generations.
But does Australia have the will power and vision to do it?
4 comments:
More sweat-shops and labour camps in the middle of the Northern Territory desert, just a short boat trip from Indonesia. I'd vote for that.......
Fill it with Labor, Green, and AusDemocrat politicians and you'll solve 80% of Australia's problems. lol.
yeah and hey if the major financial institutions base their IT out of a 3rd world backwater, then surely they could drop the fees and charges on all your accounts... oh, they already have done that and fees and charges are still high.
back in my box! :)
the only thing getting cheap labor imported will do is to increase the already fat profits of the big CEOs. The problem in Australia isnt the cost of labor, it's the greed of those in upper management and the tax system allowing those who should be paying a fortune in tax (aka. the billion dollar salary men) paying a measly few bucks and the welfare society that we have become. We're just too top heavy with people not paying taxes and bludgers!
The reason why banks here are able to charge such ridiculously high fees is because there's no real competition here. The whole industry is heavily regulated and hinders new banks from opening up shop here. As for trying to go after the mega rich, forget about it. They are rich enough to hire the brilliant lawyers and accountants to find loopholes to get out of the dumb tax laws that Australia pollies and bureaucrats make up. So guess who cops the insane taxes and regulations? Ordinary citizens and small businesses. That's how some poor bloke or Small Business struggling to succeed cops a 50% tax in the dollar whereas a rich fellah like Packer pays 10%.
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