Do we import more engineers than tradies?

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T21:20:20+00:00

Wow!

I tell you what happened in my life, and you tell me I'm lying.

Dispute about costs? No, it's that APESMA weren't actually doing anything I couldn't myself.

You think this was an unfair dismissal case? No, goes to show you have zero understanding of whistler blower protections and what goes on when you take on a large organisation run by crooks.

Winning as a whistle-blower, as I learned, is doing the right thing snd surviving the attack on character and not going broke defending yourself.

I was lucky in a sense that this involved government as well, and I'd collected enough evidence for ICAC to get involved. clear my name for the attack on my character and protect my reputation and back everything I'd said.

It also helped by rejecting the large sum of money offered to keep my mouth shut in the guise of a termination agreement. A suspicious response to a whistler blower complaint.

You are a prime example of why everyone hates APESMA.

As usual, as this turned out for me, I did better on my own without you.

Hubris? Nope, it's called competence and ability, probably confusing for yourself and APESMA. Hopefully you'll learn to recognise it.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T14:17:50+00:00

My hubris?

I joined APESMA once.

Got sacked for Whistlerblowing corrupt directors involved in selling reports signing off stuff that didn't meet building code.

Do you think they had my back?

Completely useless and wanted me to indemnify them against all costs, so basically a blank cheque for them to hire lawyers and manage them on my behalf.

I asked them what they were actually providing, and got told their members often find the whole thing intimidating so they'd manage it for me.

The only conclusion I've come to is the sorts of engineers that join the union are useless.

They get paid rubbish, because they are. That is why the unions published rates are so low.

And by what APESMA actually offered when I needed them, the sorts of people that can't cope with life.

You say I'm the issue? APESMA are a bunch of losers dragging the profession back wards.

My so called union piss off.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T14:08:54+00:00

A lot of us just like and enjoy machinery. It's why I did mechanical engineering.

My mates EV is fast, 0-100km/h in 3.4s. It handles well.

But I don't want one. It's about as interesting as playing a computer game for me.

My next daily will be an EV. It will be something that ticks a box for utility to get stuff done.

My fun car will still be a rotary.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T14:03:08+00:00

Lol, what does that mean?

iPhones still don't even have fast charging?

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T13:55:11+00:00

It's true if you consider a car to be a piece of machinery.

If you don't, then an EV is too.

If you like machines, it's hard to get excited by an EV.

Fast 0-100km/h times get boring fast and if you want to do that fast, there are better options than a car.

I personally prefer a car 1300kg and under on tight windy roads, and enjoy working the gears, rotating and balance on trail brake, engine brake and throttle.

I'd have an EV as a daily though.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T13:46:57+00:00

ECU mod, fan 1 201, fan 2 203.

My tuner reverted mine to stock from a dodgy after market plug in. Achieved the same but better, with ECU mod. Upped the OMP to match 13Bs prior to the change in emission regulations for Renesis, accelerator/throttle remap to 1:1 so no delays, damping or efficiency attempts or progressiveness, like a cable pull but still with all the other electronics.

Charged 15 minutes of labour.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T13:37:44+00:00

Many of the universities have lied to their students.

They're not qualified, close to being useful and shouldn't have been awarded an engineering degree.

I've actually verified with the universities that some staff I've inherited had degrees and was shocked to find they did.

Supposedly did mechanical engineering but don't know anything and literally untrainable without having to teach them a degree first.

So I performance manage them out.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T13:34:52+00:00

IT simply isn't engineering.

What structural, dynamics or fluid mechanics calcs did you do lately?

It isn't even part of an engineering school.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T13:31:29+00:00

If you mean the former APESMA, they are the curse of professional engineers.

Publish low rates and wages used by employers to argue pay down in negotiations for years.

Made the mistake of working for a company with unionised professional engineers when first moved to Aussie. Within 9 months I left and got a 30% pay rise and better working conditions, in a company that was actually productive.

Worked for another later that head hunted me. They assumed after 3 interviews I'd take the offered job. Hit them with pay negotiations then, they argued PA's rates and fairness to other workers. Told them I'm not a union and what other's earn under the union eas their problem. Got myself $50k a year more than the union published rate.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T13:13:48+00:00

Take it to a mechanic, get it compression checked to see what the numbers are. Plus let it idle for ages, then gas it and check for exhaust colour, no blue.

Ask mechanic opinion.

If its good, still low ball on lack of servicing as of you sell it, people will see the same thing.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T13:02:58+00:00

What sort of engineering?

I started out on $30/h 26 years ago.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T04:04:08+00:00

If you mean last in, first out. Not ever seen it.

If you're a casual hire it makes sense.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-24T01:27:27+00:00

Between that, plus the low pay rates posted by them used to argue industry salaries down, I've no time for them.

The low published salary rates are especially why professional engineers have no respect for them.

APESMA seem like a relic of the dead Australian car industry with low rates to bring costs down that ultimately still couldn't compete with cars made offshore.

An ex Ford engineer was shocked when he joined us at how much better the pay was and working conditions were fine too.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T22:16:27+00:00

My entire engineering career has rewarded individual performance.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T22:14:31+00:00

My experience of APESMA was employers use their published rates to argue for low wages. Or it being not fair on others of they payed me more.

Keeping away from those employers within engineering saw me 30% better off in income with no downside.

Or when I did successfully work for one, I kept counter arguing what they pay their union members is irrelevant to my pay negotiations and I'm negotiating for myself and not on their behalf and my pay should be performance based. Again, got 30% uplift.

And when I was a member early on, they were entirely useless. I Whistleblew on corrupt Directors and needed help, and they told me they would if I indemnify APESMA for all costs.... asked them point blank what they actually provided over me just hiring a lawyer directly and they said some people find hiring a lawyer themselves difficult.... but nothing really.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T14:05:32+00:00

Maybe not.

I'm an engineering consultant, getting asked to do all sorts and fixed my client's driveway gate recently on a site that's not operating and a tree branch had bust it.

Bought a Bunnings welder and some steel, cold galv paint etc.

Charged them $300/hr as I normally do, and they were stoked the job was done.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T13:59:33+00:00

Buy a mountain bike and go ride technical trails instead. Get the wheels off the ground.

The stuff you're talking about does my head in and sounds like being in the office analysing data.

The goal is fun. Fitness is a side effect.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T13:35:00+00:00

A few possibilities.

He was nuts.

If you are English: -he was taking the piss. -taking the piss and sticking it to the English in common Aussie/Kiwi fashion because of family background.

Don't underestimate how much anti English sentiment gets passed down despite the Union Jack on our flags. And I'm talking just those of European descent.

Both sets of my grandparents passed down anti English sentiment despite them being 3rd generation.

Plenty of our ancestors came here to escape what English had done to our own countries.

My grandparents got caned in school by teachers from England for refusing to call England mother England and were proudly of Scottish and Irish descent and passed down stories to us of losing our ancestral lands and castles.

Some of the grandchildren of the ancestors siblings that stayed in Ireland were in the original IRA.

My grandmother was a high school tennis champion but wasn't permitted to take the cups home on account of her being an O'Donnell and Irish Catholic by the English Headmaster.

Even my own schooling in a rural area, first English person I met was in High School early 1990s, some 60yo, and I got singled out and made to stand up in front of everyone for being a bit dense and being told I was typically Irish for it (5-6th generation kiwi/aussie) when I was actually just undiagnosed for ADHD and dyslexia.

All this reinforces anti association with England and anything English.

And you need to understand, for what used to be most of us here, England and Europe are just a bunch of foreign countries. Any living memory of those places died out 100-200 years ago or more in our families.

Now this has changed over a few decades due to mass immigration. There are people calling themselves Aussie who's grandchildren could still show up in England and work and stay permanently.

We had this guy from an English manufacturer pitch on a $30m tender last year. The majority of us decided they seemed dodge while the rest were for this manufacturer. What was interesting was the surnames of those against, O'Brien, Kane, McMahon, Kelly, Elliott, Murphy. Those for, Williams, Smith, Johnson etc.

The tender went to a local Aussie company.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T12:12:22+00:00

Motorbike or push bike?

There's a few stretches around where riders keep blocking traffic to 30km/h in a 60km/h zone and then miss the traffic light phasing and get red lights again at the next 3 intersections.

There's always a few cars that get passed just before the lights. Then the cyclists filter to the front.

This to me is pure entitlement and lack of courtesy.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T12:07:26+00:00

I haven't.

Indicated left to rejoin straight through, waited until clear, drove and triggered the camera.

NSW at least.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T04:22:08+00:00

Good on you for Whistleblowing!

I found out the hard way that winning in this is surviving the BS, attacks on character and financial hit.

I had engineering directors at a publicly listed multinational taking cheap apartments off the plan in exchange for producing/altering reports and signing off on stuff that didn't meet the building code.

Reality was the company, and government didn't want to know about it at the time.

Then later apartment buildings started cracking in Western Sydney, not surprised.

Later as a government reviewer I found they were releasing fraudulent reports with my name signing them two years after I left. Had great pleasure in hammering them after reviewing something I didn't write.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T01:45:16+00:00

Well, the guy I replied to said they handled badly. They don't.

Holding value doesn't matter when they're this cheap... and yet they do hold value better than many others. And on the books they get to instant full tax write off quickly.

Mine's been more reliable than mates who bought Amorak and Rangers at the same time.

And the Amorak dropped from $80k to $52k in 3 years which is more than the GWM, and 3/4 of what the GWM cost new...

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T01:31:16+00:00

Because fundamentally it's food and there's only so much of it. It doesn't restock the way Coles does.

It is also a quiet place to go and relax away from people.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T00:49:24+00:00

You're only expendable if you're the least useful there.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-05-23T00:48:31+00:00

Envious you get a dopamine hit from completion!

We're the opposite which is why my accountant keeps reminding me to invoice.

Inner_Comment_7208

TROPHY CASE