Sure, and they get salaries which helps them pay down their university debt, so in a roundabout way she does already pay for people's unis degrees.

Whenever I've been involved in hiring graduates, we haven't so much been looking at what they know (though some of the basics would be a good start) but more these attributes are high on the list:
1. Good interpersonal skills. You need to work in a team and communication is very important. You have to take into account grads especially are very nervous in interviews but they should be able to at least provide examples of working with others in the past.
2. An understanding that they don't know everything and have a strong willingness to learn
3. Demonstrated interest in the work. A graduate that is doing unpaid work themselves to learn and skill up outside of uni is very impressive. For example, as a software developer a grad can demonstrate he/she has been working on their own projects using new technologies (even for their own personal use) on something like GitHub that'll land them a job very quickly.

So yes social skills are very important but there are other things you can do too.

There was. Then the government tried to get it's hands on more mining royalties and companies like Xstrata scaled back their investments.

Also Chinese demand for metals isn't strong, there haven't been any major wars recently which makes precious metal prices drop and locally our consistently useless governments mean commercial development isn't overly high, thus lower demand for engineering.

There'd be more demand for engineers and every other graduate and worker if fuckers stopped talking the economy down.

Abbott did it for 3 years non-stop and now that he's in they're still talking it down. (Despite Australia's economy being the envy of the world.)

If you're an investor, if you're a renovator, if you want to lash out and buy a new car and all everybody does is talk about how bad the economy is and how they've either got no work or they're not sure they'll have a job in 3 months time it's no wonder no one will commit money to anything.

And when no one spends money the economy grinds to a halt.

Australians have become world champion whingers and pessimists.

Somebody, somewhere needs to start talking the place up.

Talk doesn't achieve much....good governance does.

But if you feel that strongly about it maybe you go down to parliament house in Canberra with a placard and get yourself on Sky News.

Edited by SocaWho: 21/5/2014 11:44:38 PM

Brilliant analysis Einstein.

I visited 3 steel fabricators today and spoke to another one on the phone and they all pretty much said confidence is shot and no one wants to spend any money. They're not lefty, commo, pinkos either. They're hard-working small business people.

If you think that the constant outpouring of vitriol and bad news about what dire straits the economy is in is not putting a dampener on investment and spending then you don't understand human psychology.

Ever heard of the term "leading from the front".

So you think all the problems will be solved by just "talking up the economy" and saying everything is ok.

Yes , its true that Abbott talks the economy a lot. But Id wager that you would find that most small business owners are Coalition voters and would prefer them over Labor who make it unaffordable for them to put anyone on full time or reduce the casual / part time hours they work.

Edited by SocaWho: 22/5/2014 12:47:47 AM

Please Stop.

Thats true. The thing about social skills I was alluding was not just in relation to fitting in the workplace but also networking and making an effort to know people in the industry by going to events / workshops. If Im not mistaken a lot of jobs aren't advertised and come through word of mouth by referral by someone they know.

Edited by SocaWho: 22/5/2014 12:44:43 AM

Nope. It definitely won't solve all the problems, but confidence is a state of mind and it can't hurt to talk the joint up a bit.

Running it down every 5 minutes isn't helping confidence.

Think about whether you'd go out and buy a new car if you were worried you may not have a job in 6 months time. Or whether you want to take that $100k loan out to renovate the house.

Spend a bit of time talking to people who actually make stuff and you'll hear what I'm on about.

Why people reply to socawho? He literally never has any idea of he is talking about.

well we have to listen to hockey and abbott and they have significantly less idea

I have a mortgage and all those other debts that go along with it.

Boo hoo.

-PB

Fucking lol, ricecrackers disappears for a few pages and in comes SocaWho.

It's like the greatest tag team in forum history :lol:

-PB

I disagree, they are the only ones brave enough to determine what's failing and attempt to fix it.

They could have continued the high borrowings, dragging us further into debt, won a couple of elections and left the country owing that much more. That money needs to be repaid - right now we are paying over a billion in interest alone.

I applaud them for doing something concrete to try and reduce the debt. Howard inherited a similar mess from Keating, and he and Costello fixed it. Abbott and a Hockey will do the same, despite the disinformation campaign going on at the moment. People are starting to figure out already that this budget is there for a reason.

There are a lot of left-oriented people on this forum and trying to convince them is pointless, they hate the fact that Abbott beat their heroes Gillard and Rudd into submission. They hated Ahoward the same way - with passionate, irrational hatred. They are not the ones who need to be won over, it's the middle Australia that needs to be won over. And it will be, people aren't stupid. They elected Abbott to fix the mess. He is fixing it.

The message will sink in.

@Thuper. There's no doubt something has to be done, the argument is primarily how it's getting done. People are feeling a little gypped particularly because the "heavy lifting" is supposed to be done by all when clearly it isn't.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/poorest-families-pay-most-in-budget-20140521-38p5m.html

lol ffs, how many times does it have to be said that people don't have a problem with Bony Rabbit trying to fix the budget, its HOW he is fixing the budget.

-PB

Can't stop laughing :lol:

You are literally the ideal example of programmed rhetoric towing the company line :lol:

Fucking lol.

-PB

Lol, I actually think you are.
Which is why, as I said, you're not the one who needs to be convinced.

Hardly, show me where I've used political party catch phrases and buzzwords :lol:

Every post you make is like a copy paste out of a LNP spokespersons playbook :lol:

Keep going, tis amusing.

-PB

http://www.afr.com/p/opinion/confidence_raising_tricky_business_5gA5BUf1CBgmmBcSCdbkSK

Confidence is very important in improving the current Australian economy.

Im not denying that Tony Abbot talks down the economy and Im not saying confidence isn't important, but I think businesses are realists. They realise what has to be done even if they don't like it. Sure confidence isn't great. Even John Howard embraced similar rhetoric when he was in power but they were really good years under his government. But the confidence would be even worse under Labor.
I believe people aren't against the notion of a government spending money and nor am I,but its more how Labor spent it and how wasteful it was. Foreign aid is an example, its ok if you have money in surplus to give to overseas that makes sense, but Labor borrows money to lend to less developed nations, that doesn't make sense. And we as taxpayers are footing the bill for the interest accrued off the borrowings.
Im not saying being in deficit is a necessarily bad thing and sometimes its needed to drive investment due to spending, but you dont want it spiralling out of control to the point where you can't pay it back.
Having said that there are some things I don't agree with what the Coalition does as well. Such as $7 GP charge for medicare. I'd wager most of the politicians get their health checked through a private system and wouldn't know what its like to only get the most basic essential for health care.

Edited by SocaWho: 22/5/2014 10:44:41 AM

Edited by SocaWho: 22/5/2014 10:58:58 AM

It's more than a 3 word catch phrase, those that don't understand it will never get it.

Also :lol: at people saying they're centrist and then only ever write LNP rhetoric. Just because you disagree with one or two policies from the right doesn't make you dead centre. Likewise for those that do it from the left :)

For all those who fall to the left of centre, those to the right prepare to rage.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

-PB

"The suburbs haven't been this white hot with rage since the last time they were".

:lol:

I'm not entirely comfortable with it but the current system is unsustainable and I think it needs a moderate price signal to deter unnecessary doctor visits, which soaks up massive public expenditure. $7 isn't punitive given they are still getting carbon tax compo and the reduced cost of living due to repealing carbon tax. If Labor and all their supporters were serious about helping the poor they wouldn't stand in the way blocking the carbon tax repeal, which adds hundreds of dollars to the cost of living. I think most of the rage and anxiety has little to do with the economics of the poor but is symbolism of health care no longer being perceived "free", even though poor people are already paying for pharmaceuticals. We have to move away from the idea of free unsustainable healthcare and accept the new paradigm of cheap healthcare. Remember poor the poor will still get their carbon tax compensation, which can be used to pay for GP visits, or they can ask their GP to waive the cost.

You talk about this carbon tax compensation like its going to be some figure that just pops up from week to week to make living that little bit easier.

The whole premise that scrapping it = more money in your pocket every week is ludicrous.

-PB

$7 visits don't only hurt the poor, they would hurt middle class Australians as well. I think its drawing a long bow to suggest it only affects the poor. Middle class Australians might not get compensation for the carbon tax and aren't exempt from the GP cost. Im middle class, and $7 means a lot to me and I doubt I get any carbon tax compo, and Im really grateful for a public health system. As Ive mentioned before having being in a public hospital for an operation recently I'm really grateful for the work nurses do, and I believe they are so grossly underpaid. If theres anything I hope would come out of the $7 GP visit, is that part of the money collected goes to increasing nurse's wages. They do a heck of a job under tough conditions.
If anything though the actual increase would actually hurt pensioners so the Coalition would be losing a lot of the grey vote since they go the doctors more than younger people do.
We don't want to go the way of America where paramedics don't pick up emergency patients since they have no cover for health care. Its inhumane.

Edited by SocaWho: 22/5/2014 12:39:52 PM

Middle class Australians already pay hundreds of dollars every year to fund Medicare, and now NDIS. Someone earning $50k per year will now have to pay an additional $250 to fund NDIS,I don't recall a cost of living crisis for the middle class when the gov announced raising the levy to 2%. $7 to see GP amounts for the middle class is a fair price to pay for the services you receive and obviously recently benefited from, which goes into medical research to help find futures cures which may one day save your life. If you're worried now about $7 co payment you should be runnng for your life at the prospect of bracket creep, which could add thousands to your tax bill, which will be the reality if spending cuts such as the ones outlined in the budget aren't made.

The point is we can't afford to keep maintaining free services and giving away free stuff all the time, especially the middle class. The middle class should be self sufficient and not relying on government to make ends meet. That might mean making a few small sacrifices every year (such as not buying the youngest kinder surprise) rather spending that money on helping find future cures, which could save billions in healthcare costs in the future.