Aussie Minister shows guts, foresight and concern; ours… not so much

• the sprout
• 15 years ago
• Categories: australian politics, business, same old national, unemployment
• Tags: Bridgestone, Kim Carr

Australia’s Federal Industry Minister Kim Carr has criticized Bridgestone’s closure of its Australian and New Zealand operations and the 1000 redundancies it’ll bring. Carr is looking at ways to alleviate some of the unemployment problems for the laid-off aussie workers but criticizes Bridgestone for pulling out (and no doubt relocating to countries where workers get paid a whole lot less) at a time when these sorts of closures have such a profound and long-lasting effect on communities.

And what have we heard from the New Zealand government about the closure of Bridgestone NZ’s plant and the resulting loss of 275 jobs? Nothing.

And why would that be I wonder. Perhaps it’s because this government thinks markets are all that matter, or because they think communities serve markets and not the other way around? Perhaps it’s because they think the market is immutable and resistance to market forces is futile? Perhaps they think businesses should only operate where they can find the cheapest labour?

Or perhaps they really just don’t give a shit about much other than corporate interests.