Rudd drops the F-word in fiery speech to Holden faithful

[mellie]

It was a Gaffe. A slip of the tongue....and why?
Because whilst Rudd was trying to reassure/bribe Holden workers, Holden are not the only car manufacturing industry Rudds been sweetening lately.



See, Holden workers are only too aware of what happened to Ford workers down in Geelong, so Rudds objective was to convince Holden's workers he was their 'Mate' their lifeline, and that they should vote for him in order secure their jobs.
Hence Rudds poor stab at traditionalist sentimentality when he told the story of Sean Matthews, a Holden worker of 27 years whose own father worked at the car factory for 30 years to an audience of Holden workers in the hotly contested western suburbs seat of Hindmarsh.

''He tells me it's a family tradition. He's got an uncle and an aunt, two brothers in law here working at Ford,'' said Rudd.

.... It's funny, because it's pure irony.... the irony of Rudd trying to sweeten Holden workers whilst unintentionally referring to Holden workers greatest fear... their ending up in the same predicament as Fords workers down in Geelong.

There is nothing genuine and heartfelt about Rudds Holden pre-electoral sweetener, though the manner in which he attempted to deliver his speech to Holdens union-clad workers at a good old fashion Aussie barbie was intended to reassure, establish trust, and strike a sentimental chord, in order to convince these workers that Labor really does care about the company they work for and genuinely plan to rescue them.

Labor has no intentions of sustaining any of our Industry, it's objective always was to destroy it.

What he should have told them was that despite Ford moving off-shore, Ford will be receiving funding to shut up during his campaign. and that contrary to industry speculation that Ford may/should miss out on further government assistance because it will close its factories in 2016, the car giant is still eligible for taxpayer dollars under Rudds "New Deal."...which is all part of Rudds Old New Way.


Senator Carr said Ford could apply for new funding in its final year of vehicle production because "I want Ford to stay until the very last day"....

But why Car?

Some might say this is throwing good money after bad, 'cosmetically' propping up an industry destined for off-shore production.

It's politicking at it's worst.


There had been speculation Ford may shut its Broadmeadows and Geelong factories earlier than the October 2016 deadline as production falls to new lows, though Rudd is prepared to fund them to shut their gobs during his campaign regardless, as the howl of over 1000 soon-to-be laid-off Geelong Ford workers would be rather off-putting ...campaign wise.
Can you hear their hungry families screaming over Xmas?
I can.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national-news/fe ... z2cSdA0Ur3

Ford is a dirty four letter word to Holden workers because they don’t want what happened to Geelong Ford workers to happen to them too.

Ford = Death

[Chard]

Chard... you can't hide the CLUELESS in anger...

You keep saying clueless, but you have yet to show any examples. I'm beginning to think you don't know what the term means.

[Chard]

Ford is a dirty four letter word to Holden workers because they don’t want what happened to Geelong Ford workers to happen to them too.

It's only a matter of time before Australian labor costs force GM to make the exact same decision Ford did and close Holden.

[mantra]

It's only a matter of time before Australian labor costs force GM to make the exact same decision Ford did and close Holden.

It should have happened years ago. They're not selling enough cars to justify staying open. Even our own government fleets use imported cars and don't support them.

We should be investing in Australian industry and production which needs a boost occasionally, but no doubt some deal was done years ago with the US to help them out.

[mellie]

Ford is a dirty four letter word to Holden workers because they don’t want what happened to Geelong Ford workers to happen to them too.

It's only a matter of time before Australian labor costs force GM to make the exact same decision Ford did and close Holden.

I know, but for now, Holden's workers are blissfully unaware, well, so Rudd hopes anyway.

Just until the campaign's over will be assuring enough for Rudd.... and If Holdens workers figure it out after then,(which of course they will as they start being laid-off) it wont matter to Rudd, because their doll-eyed ignorance will have met his narcissistic self-indulgent campaign objective.

[Chard]

It's only a matter of time before Australian labor costs force GM to make the exact same decision Ford did and close Holden.

It should have happened years ago. They're not selling enough cars to justify staying open.

There are three main reasons it hasn't happened yet.

1. Holden is GMs only viable route into the Australian auto market. Australians know the Holden brand, but aren't as familiar with GM's other brands, and having a natively produced product does save a bit of money for GM as they don't have to ship cars overseas to Australian markets (Asian car manufacturers generally avoid that by having much lower labor costs than US and Australian manufacturers).

2. GM's been turning a profit lately, which means they can afford to take the time to see if Holden will remain viable.

3. GM hasn't found anyone willing to buy Holden off of them yet. You can bet your ass the minute someone offers to buy Holden on terms GM considers favorable that GM will sell Holden and all of its employees up the river without a second thought.

We should be investing in Australian industry and production which needs a boost occasionally, but no doubt some deal was done years ago with the US to help them out.

The problem with that is you'd need to resettle 2/3rds of the people on the West Coast of Australia of the East Coast in order to get the population density for a viable large scale industrial workforce. Then you'd need to massively upgrade your road and rail networks to accommodate the increased flow of materials and goods in and out of the areas the factories are at. You also have to stay with high tech industries, because you simply cannot compete with cheap third-world labor, and this would also necessitate you work harder at educating your workforce so they can actually operate a technologies based industrial economy.

But the biggest stumbling block of all? Same the same one we have, your people are pretty comfortable for the most part, which in turn means they're complacent. After all, why rock the boat when things are going ok as it is? This is why I like the idea of China becoming a true global Superpower like we are so we can shock our populace into action. The Red Menace worked well for motivating the populace during the Cold War, no reason why the ChiCom Menace won't work as well.

[Rorschach]

Chard... you can't hide the CLUELESS in anger...

You keep saying clueless, but you have yet to show any examples. I'm beginning to think you don't know what the term means.

Sorry but you just aren't cutting it.
Please provide some evidence that you know anything about our current crop of pollies and some clue you know anything about Australia and Australians... clue we ain't Americans.
You might find some GenYers who ape you lot but the rest of us aren't that shallow.

[mantra]

But the biggest stumbling block of all? Same the same one we have, your people are pretty comfortable for the most part, which in turn means they're complacent. After all, why rock the boat when things are going ok as it is? This is why I like the idea of China becoming a true global Superpower like we are so we can shock our populace into action. The Red Menace worked well for motivating the populace during the Cold War, no reason why the ChiCom Menace won't work as well.

Huge assignments of marines and armory are continually being sent over here apparently for the purpose of "joint exercises". Much of the US military personnel occupy the secretive tracking station Pine Gap in the NT where they can keep an eye on China. The real joint exercises where they train the cannon fodder are performed at various locations in the top half of Australia.

China's economy apparently isn't crash hot at present, so they'll be forced to call in some of their bonds soon. The US aren't happy about that. Australia has always had a fairly civil relationship with China, but they don't like the US and Australia spying on them. Who knows what military power they have? They've got a lot more people to spare than us and the US combined, so China may well end up becoming the true global Superpower.

[dick tracy]

It is amusing when some people claim that Holden is a GM profit center. It is true that Holden do make a profit but from GMs viewpoint the return is extremely small.
The volume of output from Holden hardly registers in the total GM output volume, as Holden may build a max of 200k vehicles per year which covers the domestic and export markets. Whilst the overal US output of GM is at least 20 times that.
And by the way, the Commodore is an Opel designed vehicle. Although Holden pay Opel around $2000 per vehicle built for the design rights, a cost past onto the consumer, and as Opel is part of the GM family that money goes into the GM coffers but it is still split up along the way.
It all means that the overall profit contributed by Holden is good by Australian standards but is worth very very little from GMs view.
Also amusing is when people claim that they are more than willing to sell but only if the buyer makes a suitable offer. Such people who make such comments really have no understanding of business nor of economics.