For those who thought Dick Smith made sense and cannot see further than the end of their nose this is what so called intelligent businessmen won't be telling you:
management spin about competing globally means you go down to the lowest common denominator. Reduced wages, reduced tax income for the government which ultimately means reduced social infrastructure, i.e. health care, pensions etc. everything.
Australia cannot and should not compete with countries like China unless ALL Australians are prepared to except a drop in living standards in order to remain competitive.
Of course the drop won't affect management who will still earn their oversized wages.
Australian wages and product pricing takes into account the social infrastructure in place in Australia and every product bought adds to the pot for the benefit of all Australians.
Tickets bought for an Australian led airline based in Asia adds to the pockets of management and possibly the social pots of whichever country the airline is based. It will not add anything significant to the Australian pot.
The real question here is whether one accepts a drop in living standards for ALL Australians or whether one sends out a message of "not with us".
We need to start applying some moral common sense to these issues. Global competitiveness is a one way street. Levi Strauss is an excellent example.
Not one single pair of levi jeans are still produced in America. They are all produced outside the USA to save costs. Yet every single pair of levi jeans are sold for the maximum they can achieve in each individual country meaning that the costs savings have not been passed on to the customer, so where is all that extra cash?
Perhaps someone should take a serious look at management wages for the real answer to these sorts of disputes.
You are a fool if you seriously believe the Qantas line.