Despite all the column miles being written on the coming industrial reforms, I think Paul Keating was spot on the money in a recent interview ...
"The real issues I think are of education training. We will never beat the Indonesians or the Chinese or the Indians for that matter in the provision of labour per hour. You know, we could slash our minimum wages almost to nothing and we would still be uncompetitive in labour-intensive products. Therefore, one doesn't have to be a genius to know or to believe that the best way forward for us is to do clever things which require training, education and training."
The former Labor government's reform process, in which I was involved as a technical union representative on the enterprise bargaining committee of a large industrial site, was big on skills development and training. The overall union movement recognised that upgrading skills, coupled with utilising more technology in the workplace, was a viable method of staying competitive. It was accepted that the number of workers in up-skilled industries would fall, so training schemes were implemented to enable displaced workers to move into service oriented industries.
The provision of training was one of the tradeoffs in the wages accord to sweeten the pill of industrial reform. Of course, training is expensive, and most of the programs put in place by the Labor government didn't last past the first Coalition budget. They've been cutting education across the board ever since.
Being blind to the concept that a ton of manufactured product is far more valueable than the same weight of raw material, the conservatives have never had a vision of Australian industry 'adding value' to exports. To them, why bother? Just dig it up and dump it on a ship. Keep punters feeling wealthy by engineering a housing boom, and prop up uncompetitive industries by providing the mechanism for cutting wage costs.
The Coalition lacks the imagination and forethought to pick technological winners. Their forebears thought rain making technology was a better bet than developing solid state electronics and computing technologies. Now they're oblivious to climate change and the economic opportunities that will come with it. They're turning their backs on the development of 'green' energy technologies for the dubious technology of 'carbon sequestration.'
The future is clear. Ever rising foreign debt as we spend more than we earn. Little incentive to modernise and nurture industries producing high tech, high value exports. Why go to the trouble, when the workforce can be simply stood-over to accept lower pay and conditions to keep our outmoded industries going?
