flag of convenience Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 A three part series starting tonight on SBS 1 at 8.30 pm could be interesting with concerns that WA's mining boom may be over. It shows the peaks and troughs of the industry in the historical context. Hopefully it will be a warts and all display of the industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rossmoyne Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 As portayed by the media who have been "fed" by what the mining industry want us all to think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flag of convenience Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 As portayed by the media who have been "fed" by what the mining industry want us all to think. I hope it gets beyond the spoon fed to something of a critique. The name Dirty Business suggests perhaps there is something else.....We shall see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rossmoyne Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Yep would be nice... please forgive my cynicism.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 I quite liked that, will watch again. But then history, particularly economic & political history, is my thing so it always had a good chance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flag of convenience Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 It's startinf folk so checking out.......why not tune in and see what you think....?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest26012 Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 It's startinf folk so checking out.......why not tune in and see what you think....?? Just watching it now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest scrumpy Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Anyone got a website addy or something so we can see it in UK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flag of convenience Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share Posted January 7, 2013 The show brought home rather clearly what a gambling nation Australia is. Fortunes won and lost. Boom and bust. History really does appear to be a circle repeating itself with a degree of frequency.... Many seek to deny this of course...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ptp113 Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 The show brought home rather clearly what a gambling nation Australia is. Fortunes won and lost. Boom and bust. History really does appear to be a circle repeating itself with a degree of frequency.... Many seek to deny this of course...... It's a country for big thinkers willing to take risks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul1Perth Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Interesting first installment. It will be interesting to watch the rest of it. SBS seem to have a knack of making programs that seem to cast Aus in a bad light but for the most part it was just a factual account with a few guest "specialists" giving their views. Nothing surprising yet. Interesting that the Americans were involved very early on and didn't seem to like the Australian way of trying to share the wealth and brought in lots of cheap labour so the bigger companies made the money, not the workers. Reminded me of what Gina Rinehart is trying to do right now. Making speeches about how Africans are prepared to work for $2 a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flag of convenience Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share Posted January 7, 2013 It's a country for big thinkers willing to take risks. I wouldn't have thought thinkers but certainly gamblers. Relective is not a word that springs to mind at all.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flag of convenience Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share Posted January 7, 2013 Interesting first installment. It will be interesting to watch the rest of it. SBS seem to have a knack of making programs that seem to cast Aus in a bad light but for the most part it was just a factual account with a few guest "specialists" giving their views. Nothing surprising yet. Interesting that the Americans were involved very early on and didn't seem to like the Australian way of trying to share the wealth and brought in lots of cheap labour so the bigger companies made the money, not the workers. Reminded me of what Gina Rinehart is trying to do right now. Making speeches about how Africans are prepared to work for $2 a day. Very much so. A woman with 29 billion behind her due to an accident of birth and an oversight of a contract at the time. Actually Africans are hardly willing to work for $2 a day......miners are being killed over there fighting for a better deal..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VERYSTORMY Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 A few comments on some of the above comments rather than on the show. I am not a particular fan of Gina. But, what she said is right and is the big issue that faces Australian mining. The people have got greedy and lazy. Also, she never wanted to bring in cheap labour. She wanted particular skill sets that have been very hard to find in Oz. As for African miners. It is a hard question. Yes, they do a hard dangerous job and a fair few are killed. The alternative, which the mining companies would love to do is to modernise the mines to mechanised methods used in Oz. The way South African mines are operated at the moment is by a couple of thousand guys underground at a time, each with a air leg - a jack hammer. Modern mining would mean maybe 40 guys underground. So mass unemployment. As a result, the mining companies are put under a lot of pressure not to modernise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul1Perth Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 A few comments on some of the above comments rather than on the show. I am not a particular fan of Gina. But, what she said is right and is the big issue that faces Australian mining. The people have got greedy and lazy. Also, she never wanted to bring in cheap labour. She wanted particular skill sets that have been very hard to find in Oz. As for African miners. It is a hard question. Yes, they do a hard dangerous job and a fair few are killed. The alternative, which the mining companies would love to do is to modernise the mines to mechanised methods used in Oz. The way South African mines are operated at the moment is by a couple of thousand guys underground at a time, each with a air leg - a jack hammer. Modern mining would mean maybe 40 guys underground. So mass unemployment. As a result, the mining companies are put under a lot of pressure not to modernise. The mining companies use this argument all the time to try and lower wages, bring in cheaper labour, make out that they are being hard done by. Wait till the annual results come out and see if they have record profits again. Bit like the banks, mining companies. Forever crying about something to do with their business. Banks can't pass on the full cut to interest rates, always come up with some excuse or other and put well paid wafflers on TV to explain why. Then every year report record profits and the top people go away with a big fat bonus. Miners are the same. Kloppers and the rest of them at the top creaming it in and the whole time moaning about how much mining in Aus is costing 'cos the workers have the temerity to have decent unions and get decent money and conditions. Forever threatening to move offshore, go elsewhere or shut up shop. Heard some "expert" on the radio last week saying how the big miners had jumped the gun a couple of months ago when they laid a load of people off and cut back on a few projects. Now the commodities prices have rebounded he was saying it will cost them more now to kick the new projects off again. That same "expert" was probably on the radio 2 months back saying how the mining boom was over and it was all doom and gloom. I don't see any evidence of greed or laziness either. I know a lot of people working in the mining and oil and gas industries, including my son and they are all hard workers who are grateful they have a decent, well paid job and look to do the best they can. That's probably why it's hard to get a start up there as the recruiters want the right people and you have to show the right attitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flag of convenience Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share Posted January 7, 2013 A few comments on some of the above comments rather than on the show. I am not a particular fan of Gina. But, what she said is right and is the big issue that faces Australian mining. The people have got greedy and lazy. Also, she never wanted to bring in cheap labour. She wanted particular skill sets that have been very hard to find in Oz. As for African miners. It is a hard question. Yes, they do a hard dangerous job and a fair few are killed. The alternative, which the mining companies would love to do is to modernise the mines to mechanised methods used in Oz. The way South African mines are operated at the moment is by a couple of thousand guys underground at a time, each with a air leg - a jack hammer. Modern mining would mean maybe 40 guys underground. So mass unemployment. As a result, the mining companies are put under a lot of pressure not to modernise. Keep costs to a minimun more like it. Many of the miners as I understand come from neighbouring countries to RSA. Recent protests by mine workers has led to deaths by gun fire at the hands of the police. Rather a tinder keg waiting to expode with possible dire consquences for the entire country. I'd say Gina has had it pretty easy not exactly earning her wealth to become richest woman in the world. As I understand it she did indeed want to bring in Philippino labour to work. One can safely assume at the minimun legal rates applicable. Although not at $2 obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VERYSTORMY Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 The mining companies use this argument all the time to try and lower wages, bring in cheaper labour, make out that they are being hard done by. Wait till the annual results come out and see if they have record profits again. Bit like the banks, mining companies. Forever crying about something to do with their business. Banks can't pass on the full cut to interest rates, always come up with some excuse or other and put well paid wafflers on TV to explain why. Then every year report record profits and the top people go away with a big fat bonus. Miners are the same. Kloppers and the rest of them at the top creaming it in and the whole time moaning about how much mining in Aus is costing 'cos the workers have the temerity to have decent unions and get decent money and conditions. Forever threatening to move offshore, go elsewhere or shut up shop. Heard some "expert" on the radio last week saying how the big miners had jumped the gun a couple of months ago when they laid a load of people off and cut back on a few projects. Now the commodities prices have rebounded he was saying it will cost them more now to kick the new projects off again. That same "expert" was probably on the radio 2 months back saying how the mining boom was over and it was all doom and gloom. I don't see any evidence of greed or laziness either. I know a lot of people working in the mining and oil and gas industries, including my son and they are all hard workers who are grateful they have a decent, well paid job and look to do the best they can. That's probably why it's hard to get a start up there as the recruiters want the right people and you have to show the right attitude. Let me put it this way, productivity in Oz mining is the lowest in the world, Wages are the highest in the world. The day when i arrived and found truckies were getting $100k, it was clear the industry was doomed. That simply is not sustainable. As for commodity prices, iron ore has climbed, but it was forecast to. It always does this time of year as the mills buy heavily to ensure supply in case mines shut down due to cyclone season. There is nothing new in this and explains why rio have said they expect pricees to drop again to around thr $90 mark in April / May. For non iron miners it is no longer what china does. For example, most people would say the gold price is fairly good. Yet pretty much every oz gold mine is struggling. Why. Because the cost of mining has increased so much. Hence the reason Australias biggest gold miner has gone on the record as saying it will no longer spend a cent on capital projects in Oz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VERYSTORMY Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Keep costs to a minimun more like it. Many of the miners as I understand come from neighbouring countries to RSA. Recent protests by mine workers has led to deaths by gun fire at the hands of the police. Rather a tinder keg waiting to expode with possible dire consquences for the entire country. I'd say Gina has had it pretty easy not exactly earning her wealth to become richest woman in the world. As I understand it she did indeed want to bring in Philippino labour to work. One can safely assume at the minimun legal rates applicable. Although not at $2 obviously. I am not going to defend the RSA police. But, no its not a cost measure by the companies. Yes, many staff come from neighbouring countries, but thats just the way Africa works. I worked for one of the biggest gold miners in RSA and they would love to modernise the mines. They actually started to and the goverment made it very clear that it must not happen. One individual gold mine in Jo'Burg employs about 8000-10,000 staff. Compared to a few hundred if it was modernised. There is no where no outside of RSA where this method of mining is still used. Companies hate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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