Have a look at this latest result of outsourcing




http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24078601-5001021,00.html049,24078601-5001021,00.html



I haven't written a letter to the editor about issues like this for a year or so now, but Don was passionate about this stuff. I look to the right of my desk here and see five huge ring binders full of letters to the editor that he and I wrote over the past twenty years. One day they will tell their own story. Don would often check the labels of things to make sure we bought little or nothing from China and other places where people were treated like shit. He held meetings here against all these international trade treaties which have made it legal for Corporations to bring in cheap labour from poor countries, pay them shit and have too many of us living without proper full time jobs. Now its impossible to buy anything at all made in Australia unless at local markets and then you have to be careful to read the labels. But I came up with an idea for our new Australian flag - a picture of the rusted and blown out jetliner with the title "The Spirit of Australia" over it. I get so pissed off at times...and then I don't like most of us... this morning I did -lets see if it gets published.


Dear Editor,
Most Australians would have been unaware that Qantas outsources its maintenance to Malaysia. For generations we have basked in the belief that Qantas was the world’s safest airline because of the high standard of maintenance which had created a history of an almost incident free service.

The photo of the Qantas jet with a big hole ripped out of its underbelly being called a rust bucket by some, below the sign on the side of that jet “The Spirit of Australia” said it all.

The spirit of Australia is exactly that, outsourcing to Malaysia, India and China things most Australians still believed were under the strict quality controls we had held for generations. Instances such as Customs finding one thousand times the allowable lead content in container loads of crockery coming from China and destined for the bargain stores – allowed through so that many Australian children are now eating off lead contaminated crockery is another example.

The Spirit of corporate and Government Australia is cutting costs regardless of the outcome to Australian people. It is a spirit of exploitation and manipulation of standards designed to ensure the health and safety of products and services available to Australian people.

Sadly the spirit of Australia has been sold to the lowest bidders, and many of us unwittingly supported this by buying goods from China when Australian goods were still for sale, because of the cost, with no thought to the real cost which is the health and well being of Australia. Now it is almost impossible to find anything made in Australia.

I think that the photo of that Qantas plane with its rusty guts ripped out underneath the words “The Spirit of Australia” should be our new flag till we take back the responsibility to once again stand proudly under the Southern Cross. Congratulations to the brave pilots who saved a whole plane load of people by their skill. Lets hope that their jobs are never outsourced to some country where quality control can be bought and sold.
Yours sincerely,
Therese Mackay