Re: Asciano's See's pigs gathering at the trough
craig....@gmail.com
> Asciano's feed bin well laden
> CBD
> August 27, 2009
>
> Scott Rochfort has never punched a shark.
>
> IT IS heartening to see the cash-strapped Asciano Group still has enough
> money on hand to keep its executive feed trough well-stocked.
Well the company did basically get $70 million for nothing from the
NSW government over the 'we pay if you run them or not' grain train
debacle which is now being re-inforced by trying to pass ammendments
to the Transport Administration Act through parliament to allow the
government to close down railway lines ad-hoc bypassing proper
democratic process (remember rail lines are built as a result of an
'enabling' Act that is debated before it happens). Translated, it
means that when the contract with PN is up, the government can simply
decide to close a line, rip the track up, and sell the land off.
Nothing inherently wrong with that, except it's sickly vested-interest
politics intended to re-inforce road transport against the resurgance
of rail (not just in NSW). Other lines which PN dont run subsidised
grain trains on are also likely to be given away for effectively
peanuts.
Asciano won't care - the company is nothing more than an 'asset-
stripping' operation which sets things up in such a way that when PN
(or another subsidiary) no longer wants or needs something, it's
rendered unusable by any potential competitor that might wish to pick
up the pieces.
Also remember that Asciano is a publicly listed company so it's
answerable to shareholders, and the shareholders might not care if
Mark Rowsthorn pockets a very large pay packet if the company produces
good earnings results (even if it is at the expense of pissing off
it's customers and dumping a lot of staff).
Craig.
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/navarzo3
Is the bread Helga's? How Nomenic is your Nescio?
terryc
> Also remember that Asciano is a publicly listed company so it's
> answerable to shareholders, and the shareholders might not care if Mark
> Rowsthorn pockets a very large pay packet
It isn't whether or not they care, but whether they can do anything about
it.