Maravi

(CROOKS AND LIARS) World's Richest Woman Suggests $2 a Day Wages for Australian Miners

COMMENT - No surprise. We have to have international agreements that 1) all natural resources belong to the people of country and 2) are sold by to the state at cost and are sold by the state at maximum profit only. That would ensure that no country can be retaliates against for levying whatever tax their sovereign nation wants to collect. And we must move towards a living wage, not merely a minimum wage.

(CROOKS AND LIARS) World's Richest Woman Suggests $2 a Day Wages for Australian Miners
September 05, 2012 04:00 PM
By David

The world's most wealthy woman is warning that firms are in danger of having to abandon iron-ore mining in Australia if wages are not cut, pointing out that African miners are "willing to work for less than $2 per day."

In a video recently posted on the Sydney Mining Club website, 58-year-old Gina Rinehart -- who has amassed a $18 billion fortune through iron-ore prospecting -- said that Australia could be more competitive by emulating Africa.

"We must be realistic, not just promote class warfare," the billionaire explained. "Indeed, if we competed at the Olympic games as sluggishly as we compete economically, there would be an outcry."

"The evidence is unarguable that Australia is indeed becoming too expensive and too uncompetitive to do export- orientated business," she insisted, adding that "Africans want to work. Its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day."

Under current exchange rates, $2 a day in Australia is worth about $2.04 in U.S. dollars.

"It's not the Australian way to toss people $2, to toss them a $2 gold coin and then ask them to work for a day," Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters on Wednesday. "We support proper Australian wages and decent working conditions for Australian people."

Rinehart came under fire last week after she wrote a column urging those "jealous" of the wealthy to "spend less time drinking or smoking and socializing, and more time working."

Labels: MINIMUM WAGE, MINING, NEOLIBERALISM

posted by MrK @ 4:58 AM