What do you think happens when an office refit is ordered? Do you think the MP has much say in it? Does he demand that they get furniture from IKEA or get some local tradesmen to put it together? Nope. It goes through the government system that has contracts in place for preferred suppliers who all charge like wounded bulls. And the MP ends up with what he gets with little or no say in the matter. Or have you not wondered why it isnt a few MPs or even a lot of them but EVERY SINGLE ONE?

stunspore wrote on Feb 20^th, 2016 at 2:32pm:


Some of you have literally stated that unions and unionist do not rip off people or act in a corrupt manner.  How many of these companies are staffed by union labour?  Most.

mariacostel wrote on Feb 20^th, 2016 at 4:37pm:


Might be staffed, but may not be in charge of costings.  Considering companies with no union members (i.e. LNP) seems weird to just "target" unions.  Besides, imagine trying to negotiate with large organisations, say, the defence force all with similar roles.  Be ages if each individual have to go and negotiate a new contract/variation/salary rise.  So is the Defence force union corrupt?  Is the nursing union corrupt?  It isn't the organisation but the people and unless people like lib supporters target corrupt people (and not organisations) it sort hard to think it isn't bias and irrational hate.

stunspore wrote on Feb 20^th, 2016 at 4:46pm:


I have actually done a great deal of business with government and there are a few things you clearly don't seem to understand. The first thing is that 'price' is rarely the issue. ALl the other important things are: are you union-compliant, do you have gender-equality processes in place, are you this, that and the other thing. After you get through that, the price  may or may not be an issue. One thing though, it is rarely a price-competitive bid. The winning tenderer will often be the most expensive.

When you bid on a job for private industry, all the rules are different. They want a good price, good supply, good support and a good product. Government wants almost everything other than a good price as long as you can fulfill a whole lot of other requirements. THIS is why it casts $500K to upgrade an office which you could subcontract yourself for probably $50K.

You havent experienced anything until you have been told that your quote on a government job is too low and been suggested to QUADRUPLE IT. And yes, we got the job!

mariacostel wrote on Feb 20^th, 2016 at 6:03pm: