Very unfortunate that SPC is about to vapourise. It is an endemic problem that is seeing the closure or departure of our traditional industrial base. SPC is not the only one in recent times to struggle and will not be the last.
It is very convenient to lay blame at the relative wage levels locally, union activity and the high dollar. Unfortunately, the effects of these are quite small. By far the biggest influence on the demise of local production is the appalling decline in Australian productivity growth. The last one and a half decades has seen the most sustained fall in this area. Even spending time in negative territory.
Productivity growth is one of the major economic performance indicators that point to real wealth sustainability. Without it, our competitors eventually catch up and are able to move their products to us at a lower cost.
It is true that many world leading economies have suffered the same fate but ours has been thoroughly abysmal, the 2nd lowest in the developed world. This is the one that that will bite each and every one us on the arse. Leading economists have warned about this to governments of both persuasion with no changes in policy settings to encourage businesses to make the necessary investments in this area. Instead our illustrious leaders seem to think that stopping the boats is far more important.
I've rambled on enough for now. For anyone truly interested in this most important phenomenon, the following is tedious reading at 86 pages but a great insight into the real picture.
http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/116278/productivity-slump.pdfhttp://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/1370.0~2010~Chapter~...
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