It’s not all peachy out there in job-land

 

Recently I wrote about the plight of the manufacturing industry and the lack of direction being provided by the Abbott Government.

I touched on the disjointed messaging coming from Government ministers – to industry, to those losing their jobs and as a result needing new ones and regarding any potential new “innovative” ideas to create jobs and industries of the future.

The Government is not instilling confidence in people that it is going to be able to generate tangible solutions, or come to the rescue of important employment industries, and it needs to.

Tony Abbott and even Liberal Victorian Premier Denis Napthine, have now jumped in boots and all to the CFMEU and union corruption claims being run out in the media. Both leaders have had very little positive to say lately, but now they have found a favourable fight to join which will absolve them from having to generate any ideas of substance of their own – for a while.

Politically, it’s a good fight for them to kick along. Labor is steeped in the union movement, tarnishing the unions then hurts the ALP and helps regurgitate the AWU slush fund scandal that implicated our most recent former PM.

I should clearly state here, that I also support cleaning up unions or any other organisations (especially fee/membership based organisations) that have acted inappropriately, so I have no qualms about applying proper scrutiny where it’s deserved.

However, going as far as signalling a Royal Commission exposes that this is absolutely a purely political move and a hugely costly one – one that would come at the expense of the people and industries that the Abbott Government is currently neglecting.

You’re unlikely to get out of a Royal Commission with any change from $50 million (twice what SPC Ardmona is seeking to retain jobs in this country) and in fact, the eventual bill is likely to be closer to $70 million.

You’re also unlikely to get out of it with any real or meaningful change being effected beyond what is already possible through law enforcement agencies.

So, while millions upon millions of dollars are being frittered away on a political exercise that holds a realistic potential to achieve nothing for anyone but the government in its popularity contest, the Liberal Government is also busy axing foreign aid and rejecting the notion of applying funds to industry assistance packages to keep people in jobs at SPC Ardmona and Holden.

 

It makes it harder to swallow when Treasurer Joe Hockey – who has decried Labor for living in debt, happily lifted the debt ceiling to a whopping $500 billion – audaciously tells companies to learn to live within their means as he proudly thumbs his nose at them and their workforce.

Where does it leave Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane who is trying desperately to prove to thousands of jobless people and the industries that support them, that the government is serious about their welfare and will not just throw them on the scrap heap of life?

Tony Abbott’s version of a long-term strategy and big picture vision is purely about how he can succeed at the next election. It’s not about how to improve the environment, or people’s rights or living conditions by generating jobs of the future – unless of course there’s significant political capital in any of that.

Further illustrating a growing lack of confidence in our PM’s ability to lead a charge of great ideas for the future, was his embarrassingly narrow-minded showing on the world economic stage in Davos recently.

At his first big chance to demonstrate his big picture prowess to some of the world’s most influential people, he reportedly left them with an accurately underwhelming impression of his government’s inability to set aside petty local politics in pursuit of issues of a global nature.

Today’s cabinet meeting in Canberra saw a divided Coalition cabinet go against securing local jobs for SPC Ardmona. It was a revealing test for the Abbott Government’s ability to put principles, policies and the long-term welfare of others above its own immediate political needs.

 

Holden on for a rough ride ahead

Thank goodness those appalling Holden “We’re here to stay" ads have gone away. They were a terrible way to rub salt into the gaping wound of the company’s announcement it would cease manufacturing in Australia and they should never have been allowed to offend our eyes and ears.
Whether the ad buy has intentionally run its course or if community backlash to the ads caused the cessation of them from our screens and radios (hopefully the latter), doesn’t ultimately matter, the good thing is they’re gone (or at least I haven’t been subjected to them lately).

The wheels of change can turn rather fast, as we’ve seen in relation to Holden’s decision to depart the Australian car manufacturing scene.

South Australia will remember all too well when Mitsubishi made the call way back in February 2008 to pack its bags and cease Australian production at its South Australian headquarters at Tonsley Park in March of that same year. Hundreds lost their jobs as a result.

Earlier last year Ford announced it could no longer hold back the dam wall and as we now know, its fiercest and most traditional rival, Holden, has succumbed. Only Toyota remains and there is little belief that it will be able to do any more simply hang on until facing the seemingly inevitable demise of its Australian manufacturing operations also.

Coming from working in state and federal governments with a voracious appetite for jobs creation in the face of trying economic pressures, the loss of industry and huge jobs fallout is a deeply distressing blow.

I feel for those people who will have their lives turned upside down and who will now face enormous personal and financial pressure as a result, and I feel for the communities and businesses this will further impact.

GM Holden Chairman Mike Devereux quite neatly summed up the decision being made on the back of a “perfect storm of negative influences the automotive industry faces in the country, including the sustained strength of the Australian dollar, high cost of production, small domestic market and arguably the most competitive and fragmented auto market in the world.”
I can accept that.
However I still can’t accept from Holden, the audacious advertising campaign with its vision of regular people in irregular places, spliced with seemingly pointless shots of Australian sports stars (perhaps in a misguided attempt to imbue some sense of patriotism) – all to reassure us that Holden is here to stay.

Just as Mitsubishi did back in 2008 with its pursuit of a “full import strategy”, Holden badged its decision as a “transition to a national sales” manoeuvre, and just as with Mitsubishi in 2008, everyone knows what that really means on the ground – deep job cuts.

So why try this on? No-one I’ve spoken to at work, in media circles and in social circles rates the ad because no-one finds it convincing or believable.

Quite rightly, most of the people I’ve spoken to are more interested in what the next frontier is for those that will be jobless because of the manufacturing shutdown.

To that point, I heard Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane on radio being interviewed after Holden’s announcement, and while I can see merit in some of what he said, he also had me raising an eyebrow at times.

While he is right that the Australian market is no longer big enough to solely or even mostly sustain profitable automobile manufacturing operations here, especially in the current economic climate, he was completely unconvincing regarding his government’s ability to protect the future and pave a way forward by finding new and innovative industries.

All throughout the week of Holden’s announcement Macfarlane came across as being either at-odds with his robust Treasurer Joe Hockey, or out of touch with his position. Either way, the end result was Australians being sent a direct message that their government representatives weren’t even on the same page as each other, dashing any hope that there was a strategic plan to resolve the issue.
And while Macfarlane is right to say he is now putting his energies into focusing on new transition industries so that displaced workers will have new jobs to pursue – jobs of the future – talking about the need for innovation is far easier than actually creating policies and an environment that actually delivers it.

The Coalition for example, has questioned climate change science, has put onerous policy burdens around new and innovative industries involving clean energy (think wind farms), is committed to repealing the carbon price which is designed to stimulate new innovation and has announced a new review of the Renewable Energy Target less than a year after the previous government responded to the last one. And this is just looking at a snapshot of a microcosm of government operations as an example.

That it is the government actually stifling innovation, new job creation and environmental benefits – quite the trifecta – can hardly engender much hope that we’re in safe hands.

For all its woes, the Federal Labor Government since 2007 steered the country through arguably the most challenging global economic period since the Great Depression of the 1930s when the Global Financial Crisis hit, and despite concerns from some quarters with its methodology and delivery, Australia emerged from the downturn in good health compared to other major economies.

So the current Abbott Government will be hard pressed to truly convince most objective Australians that the current economic circumstances it’s inherited are of the magnitude and complexity as what was posed to the former government and what they could have been had we not navigated the GFC so well.

I hope the current government is ready to get down in the trenches and do the hard work to preserve jobs where it can and to deliver what Macfarlane purports to be working on – jobs of the future. We need new industries, new technology, better products, more innovation and Australian ingenuity leading the way to better job creation and a greater overall community benefit.

Unfortunately experience has shown these things are too easy for governments to say and too hard for them to follow-through on and deliver.

Give me some credit, it’s Christmas after all

Well, it’s Christmas Eve and I still haven’t bought a present for my beloved wife, nor have I made a purchase for my baby girl.

And I may not.

Partly it’s my nature to leave things until the last minute, partly I’m paralysed by fear of making a(nother) terrible gift buying blunder and in part it’s because I loathe the idea of buying babies presents they will neither need nor remember.

It’s also partly a product of having a daily limit on my new keycard, which is such a poxy device it puts me off shopping altogether.

This gripe stems from the fact I had to recently cancel my credit card in order to satisfy a loan application for a house. In cancelling my beloved credit card which was linked to all other accounts, I lost my access to the financial world.

Now that I have a new keycard (I feel like I’m 15 again), I am too aware of the wonderful consumer transactional world I’m excluded from.

My new card is swipe only. There is no smart chip, there is no tap and go or paywave, and there is of course no credit facility. You can’t even pay for all parking tickets at shopping centres without a credit card – it’s completely annoying and unnerving.

I know I should be out remedying this lack of gift issue now instead of writing about it, but it’s not that easy.

One year my late shopping habit saw me buy my lovely a t-shirt she thought was a complete joke (it wasn’t) and a CD single that I thought was a full CD (turns out it just had a big plastic cover to fool unsuspecting victims like me).

Most recently I purchased her a beautiful and expensive dress that I personally selected from a high-fashion store.

The result? We now have a firm rule that I am to keep all receipts from any purchases I make.

First-world problems I know, but hey, isn’t that what Xmas has become all about?

20.13pm: PS: I did make a late dash to the shops today and Santa will be visiting our house after all!

Spellbound and ready to sabotage selfishness

Elsie-May has cast a spell over me. I've only known her a very short time, but I talk to her every day and I think about her a lot. She’s never said a word back to me.

My darling wife has noticed changes in me I'm sure of it - she knows about Elsie-May and my growing infatuation with her.

Still, my wife, a strong and independent woman – far from a Stepford wife – stays with me, and loves me more every day.

She has even embraced Elsie-May in our lives, and is actually very close to her.

Elsie-May is my newborn daughter. Our first child.

She arrived on my birthday, September 20, the best birthday present I’ll surely ever receive and one I’ll be eternally grateful for.

We already have a lot to be thankful for. For starters, the pregnancy was a breeze compared to some stories you hear.

No morning sickness, no major dramas, straight-forward appointments with the obstetrician and the hospital, easy.

Of course, for me, that means not much changed in the lead-up.

And there it is – my casual selfishness coming to the fore.

While my wife got bigger, less comfortable, struggled to sleep, and became anxious about what was ahead of her, for me, nothing much changed.

I still went to the gym, to work, to golf, to the pub if I wanted, and I still invited people over for dinner at will. Because for me, aside from having to attend a few parenting classes and making some purchases to set up the nursery, it was business as usual.

I didn’t need to monitor what I could and couldn’t eat, I didn’t require daily supplements to give another dependant person the best chance at life, I didn’t suffer from constant indigestion or a lack of sleep (although the lack of sleep aspect has now well and truly been taken care of).

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t an absentee partner. My point is that for us blokes, the real work of parenting doesn’t really start until we’ve got something to get our hands on. In the meantime, we’re merely a support act.

I knew that was all going to be knocked for six, and that my preoccupation with self was due to be almost entirely substituted for a manic passion to put someone else first.

And now that it’s upon me, it’s even better than I had anticipated.

As I edged closer to the day that I actually became a Dad, I thought more and more about Elsie-May and what she might want or need, ahead of what I do. I was happily sabotaging my own selfishness, bit by bit, as if training myself for the inevitable.

Typing this with my sleeping beauty laying next to me, sniffling, snuffling and stretching, I cannot wait for every next chance I get to hold her, help her, nurture her, and watch her learn and grow.

I can’t wait for us all to bond and grow together, learning and developing through adversity and sharing in the spoils of the happy times we are sure to also experience.

I’m curious to see how I handle fatherhood, to see if I’m any good at it, and to take on the many challenges it throws at me, all whilst continuing to try and fulfil my own personal and professional ambitions.

I’m really looking forward to the whole gamut, despite the anxiousness and apprehension I have about getting it right.

And there's the crucial little revelation that goes to the heart of what could be seen as my self-absorbed approach during the pre-birth period.

Can I actually do this and can I do it well? This is not something you want to get only half right - or get completely wrong for that matter either.

Pregnancy and parenthood is something the girls excitedly talk about and share stories, learnings and the like about. This is not the traditional domain of men.

So behind the veneer of my relaxed, self-assured and unchanged approach to life at this point in time, is the trepidation of a brand new dad. A fledgling father who, for all his self-confidence, is completely uncertain about his ability to get the job done and to get it done right.

Someone who wants to be as good as my dad was to me, and as my wife’s dad was to her.

Hopefully by the time she can read this, Elsie-May will understand and be proud of the effort I’ve put in to raising her, and she may even give me some pointers for improvement along the way.

In the meantime, I’ll heed the some of the abundance of advice I’ve received from other more seasoned parents, and just soak up every minute of this precious time before she learns how to talk back and tell me everything I’m doing wrong.

This column was first published on the Mamamia website. For the full copy with pics visit http://www.mamamia.com.au/parenting/newborn-baby-becoming-a-dad/

Major emergencies have a long tail – so support those fighting the fires in NSW

I’ve been in Sydney on several occasions over the past few weeks – every time I’ve been there, the weather has been hot.

Being from Melbourne, that’s been enjoyable, despite the challenges it poses to carry-on luggage adequately accommodating the different climates.

I’ve caught up with friends and sat in Hyde Park on balmy evenings enjoying the good food at the Night Noodle Market, and I’ve been able to finally use an outdoor pool at a hotel.

 

I was in Sydney last Thursday when the raging NSW bushfires started to take hold up in the Blue Mountains and surrounding areas.

 

Stuck inside with air-conditioning at a conference all day, I was too busy with work to even go outside and look up at the sky. Some other colleagues managed to, and what they saw was the hot talk of the table at dinner that night.

 

What I missed was an eerily and devilishly red sky above the harbour, beautiful and intriguing to some, but in reality, a direct result of something far more sinister and dangerous happening not that far away.

 

Though disappointed I missed it, even if I had seen it, it would have been purely voyeuristic, as I was jumping on a plane and leaving town to head home to safety the next morning anyway.

 

The following day’s papers, even back in Melbourne, carried front page headlines such as “Hellfire” – the red sky the previous night was nothing to admire.

 

What is to admire, however, is those thrust into the midst of working through these large-scale emergencies.

 

I have seen their work– their tireless and tough work – up close, and it is something those of us not directly affected should all appreciate, and something that those requiring their help will never forget.

 

I was a Ministerial adviser in the Victorian Brumby Government when the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires hit, killing 173 people. It was all hands on deck to get out and help communities in any way possible during the days, and all the seats at the office table were filled as support and recovery plans were built throughout the evenings.

 

I saw all of our emergency services working hard together at fire fronts, volunteers at community halls helping house those displaced from their homes by fire. I saw the Army working to help rebuild burnt out communities and I saw the nerve centres that managed resources to fight ongoing fires and fire threats.

Then in the aftermath as an adviser working specifically on emergency services and bushfire response, I saw the long tail of dealing with a Royal Commission, creating new legislation to improve fire safety, to rebuild entire communities and to help keep people safe.

 

In 2013, four years later, my involvement continues, working with the country’s largest Class Actions law firm at Maurice Blackburn, seeking compensation for those that lost and suffered because of the Kinglake and Marysville fires.

 

Today in NSW the winds are reported to be hitting extreme speeds of up to 100kph in the Blue Mountains and other parts of the state – the RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has indicated that his firefighters are battling 60 fires, 22 of which are uncontained, with three at emergency level.

 

For those dealing with a major event, such as the brave emergency services teams and the authorities that work tirelessly to put in place the support networks to deal with the fallout, there’s no quick fix and there’s no easy exit from these situations.

 

It’s tough work and it’s tiring work for all involved, but it’s some of the most important work the people involved will ever do.

 

My experience tells me that these emergencies and those involved don’t just come and go. So I take my hat off to all those working on the NSW fires emergency, because while the work required might peak during the height of the disaster, it doesn’t just jump on a plane and go away any time soon.