Letters, feedback, get it off your chest

Dear Editor,


New minister opens his eyes to the printing industry




Your recent article regarding a meeting between Printing Industries and the minister for vocational education, was the subject of considerable discussion during the Australasian Association of Printing Teachers (AAPT) annual conference in Sydney last week (24 - 25 May).




The main topic of conversation on this subject was the suggestion that Australia consider following the New Zealand model of training. Delegates attending from New Zealand, who (as a result of that model) are no longer involved with trade training, were able to inform the Australian delegates of what has happened in New Zealand over the past few years and how it might impact on training in Australia.




According to these delegates, training within a college is virtually non existent and training has become the responsibility of the employer, while what remains of the trade school, validate assessments also carried out by the employer. Although Australian trade trainers are already involved in these activities to a certain extent, supplementary training and underpinning knowledge are still very strong areas delivered off the job.




Employers are currently required to agree to a training plan for each apprentice or trainee, and should train according to that plan. If the role of trade trainers is to be restricted to validation of assessments, it is not unlikely that the employer's responsibility to training and assessment will increase to the point that the administration involved will seriously eat into production.




Australian delegates attending the AAPT annual general meeting (from NSW, QLD, S.A & WA), voted to survey printing industry enterprises with a training culture, and invite responses regarding this issue. A survey will be distributed by each branch later in the year.



Craig Henningham



Former National President AAPT












Dear Editor,


Re: Stream Solutions snaps up Vic Government print tender



This just shows how much the government really understands about our industry.

They say it will result in a 15 per cent reduction in print costs overall.

How - because Stream will have the power to screw all of Victoria's printers down to ridiculous margins.

Result - more printers out of business, more money for Stream.

Having worked for companies who have done Government print work, I know where all the money is spent.

Its spent on authors corrections, over and over, due to lack of planning by Government departments and staff.

If they got some people into their print buying areas that actually had a clue what was going on, it would help a lot.

Regards,



Steve (surname withheld)












Dear Editor,


Re: GBC picks up A.E. Hudson in supply side takeover


I read your story regarding A.E.Hudson supply side takeover.



Here in North America, graphic supplier consolidation has been going strong and now slowing to almost a halt for the last 10 years. Over the last decade mega dealers have been born. These are made up of the original company and the many graphic suppliers they bought up. They can service every city in every state throughout North America. Their sales are in the billions. They sell traditional graphic art supplies, digital, and many types of substrates.



The following is only my opinion: You have a lot of consolidation usually when a market is mature. A mature market where overall growth has slowed and is price-driven. If you think about it, back in the days when the majority of supplies were not sold on price, but sold on being new technology with a good return on cost, profits were up and there was little consolidation.



It happened here as most of the suppliers were selling the same or similar supplies (plates inks and other items) which then allowed them to sell mainly on price alone. The weaker graphic suppliers lost out as profits dipped and they sold out to the largest suppliers.



There are still many areas in the world where Consolidation has not taken place yet. These markets have many years left before they are mature, they continue to grow based on bringing the printer new and or different technologies, not the same things.



Our company is based in the USA, England and China making pressroom products sold through graphic suppliers world-wide. Here we are known since 1952 as Allied Pressroom Products. In England and China we are ABC/Allied. We work with some graphic suppliers in Australia and the surrounding territories and find there are similarities between this area and North America.



Sorry about being so long-winded.



Regards,



Rick Sures


President


Allied Pressroom Products
















Dear Editor,

Re: View from the top: report on PrintEx forum



Gordon Towell's address was spot-on. In it he mentions, regarding imported print from China, that we don't know where the source fibre comes from for much of the paper on which Chinese printing is made. Perhaps, he asserts, from virgin old-growth Amazon rainforest.



He is right again, but it gets worse. Chinese pulp mills can not get enough feedstock so anyone offering pulplogs, chips or pulp will be welcomed with no questions asked. FSC doesn't seem to count and there are documented cases of forged FSC certificates by suppliers of pulp and pulplogs to giant mills such as Jiang Lin on Hainan Island - the world's newest and largest.



So where does the feedstock come from? It comes from both legal and illegal sources. Russia's Taiga (Siberia) old-growth forest is being avariciously logged illegaly for both sawlogs and pulplogs and most of it heads over the border to China. Companies such as Sinar Mas subsidiary Asia Pulp & Paper clear whole provinces of old growth forest in Indonesia, Malaysia, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and even China itself where APP came under fire for illegal logging in Yunnan province. Virtually all the lowland forest of Sumatra is now destroyed and there are documented cases of violence and intimidation of local communities in places such as Kalimantan by what our own ABS's Four Corners programme called 'The Timber Mafia' See here.



Additionally, while our printers such as Triple-Gold-Award winning Finsbury Press, struggle with a mountain of legislation to comply with FSC, EPA and other 'green' requirements; nothing is done to check the credentials of the paper and board used in imported print. Recently, toxically-high level of formaldehyde were found in imported Chinese textiles. What about dioxin testing for paper?



Australia's Forestry management today is one of the best in the world with most old-growth trees protected and an ever-increasing area of plantation timber. China too is planting eucalypts to feed its huge pulpmills but in between time, vast ancient tracts of the planet are being laid waste to keep China's printing industry going. To be fair, China also imports all the recycled feedstock it can lay its hands on. Most of Europe's and Japan's recovered paper fibre bales head to China.



The hypocrisy in all this, sits squarely in Canberra and with all state governments.



Yours faithfully,



Andy McCourt


Commentator - Print 21
















Dear Editor,


Re: Launceston apprentice triumphs at local awards


What a co-incident that I read your article on a young man by the name of Michael Hall in Launceston winning the
apprentice of the year.



My name is Michael Hall aged 61 years living in Perth, WA. I went into the printing industry in 1961, not knowing what to do and I really enjoyed being a compositor (not a machinist as my father in the timber industry said that being a machinistwould be boring), this apprenticeship led me to later on at 28 years of age running my own business for over 30 years and I developed a passion for printing which still lives on today. My son Brent is a printing machinist having trained under me in Perth, WA and moved to Melbourne to run Heidelberg Speedmaster 74's to gain more experience in bigger companies. He also was apprentice of the year in his 2nd year.




I wish my namesake Michael Hall of Tasmania all the best and make the most of his opportunities and great to see.




More employers should take on apprentices as I did over many years.



Regards,



Michael Hall

















Dear Editor,


Re: Girl power takes centre stage at RMIT Industry Training Awards



In my very brief experience to date (studying Graphic design at TAFE)
the story in the letters to the editor from Bronwyn Layden of BL.ink
Printing, about the her experience as a woman in the printing
industry was both long overdue and her story was great. These stypes
of stories are few and far between, and women should be recognised
for the work and contributions they have made.



Therefore it is really encouraging to see a woman who obviously has
an extensive background in the whole industry, be recognized finally
- Bronwyn is an inspiration and I believe that I will look to her,
and realise that I can live my dream to be successful and happy and
hope to enjoy my work half as much as she obviously does.

Good letter Bronwyn.



Kind regards,


Leticia Simpson


Graphic Designer