this is waht john howard will do to our kids, page-10

re: this is what john howard will do to our kids chuck,
You do have an interesting and unusual outlook on life.

I dont recall reading or hearing recently anything about "bring back child labour and the work house..." in Australia as you seem to think is a logical extension of my post, and frankly I think it is quite unlikely.
I would certainly be interested to see your reference for whatever legislation is being introduced to support this claim of yours.

As you rather incompletely state, there are of course some segments of the labour markets of China and India that we will not be able to compete with economically but that is the same for much of the world, just as there will always be segments of the labour markets that CHina and India will not be able to complete economically with us.

All countries are attempting to find a workable strategy that allows for their own populations to co-exist with an emergent China and India and so we are not in any unique position regardless of your attemtt to somehow pin the blame on John Howard for the extreme competitivness of the world markets and for the current disruptive transition. He inherited a shameful legacy of longterm problems from keating and his gang that require many, many years to repair.

As you do finally seem to understand, an overall skilling of the labour force is essential for us to assist us in evolving a strategy for growth and employment. The competitive market place certainly seems to be one of the best options for this skilling, and those who do not skill themselves will probably lose out to those who do.

The new IR laws will aid as an powerful incentive for all people to skill themselves or risk being marginalized and so they seem to be a win-win for industry and the working community.