For the next few days, and possibly a lot longer, Rudd v Gillard will dominate the airwaves, the internet and newspapers, which is entirely understandable given what’s at stake.

But, when you cut through the blizzard of words shrouding recent political events what you really have is an unpleasant personality clash and an internal party dispute.

The driverless train question is actually far more important than deciding who gets to sleep in The Lodge in Canberra on weeknights.

Driverless trains, and all that flow from cutting the number of people working Australia’s mines, railways and ports is a question which could decide whether anyone in Australia will be sleeping north of the 26th parallel in a few decades time.

If that sounds a far-fetched suggestion consider what is really meant in the use of a technology which transfers day-to-day operations of a mine in the north of WA (or the north of Queensland) to a man sitting at a computer console in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne – or London.

The theory behind driverless trains, plus driverless trucks, boggers, and loaders is all about the business aim of lowering costs by cutting the size of the workforce.

Public relations spin from the mining companies, especially Rio Tinto, is that eliminating the human factor from trains and trucks also eliminates the potential for lost-time accidents and fatalities.

No people. No deaths. Sounds snappy and might even encourage senior management at Rio Tinto to imagine that their company has a soul.

All of the arguments about driverless equipment and fully-automated underground mining equipment are well understood, and from a strict business perspective they make sense. Even some unions are prepared to accept the situation because it means putting the few people left on site into better working conditions.

None of that addresses the question of what’s best for Australia, which is why The Hog thinks there should be wider discussion about a technology which has the potential to be as damaging to the north of the country as the blight called fly-in, fly-out.

Rather than creating cities, towns and communities in the north, Australia is creating a people-less wasteland which might very well have some of the world’s great mines, but nothing else.

A lifetime ago, or the 1960s to be more accurate, The Hog made his first visits to the north of the country to see the opening of the Pilbara iron ore industry. Back then, it was government policy to encourage the building of company towns, and for workers in the north to get a special tax concession for enduring the harsh conditions north of the 26th.

The company towns never worked because people hated having “the company” controlling every aspect of their lives. The tax concession was dropped because people in the south hated someone getting a concession they didn’t have.

What happened after that was the development of so-called “open” towns which tried to develop, but rarely bloomed because of the short-term nature of the workforce which came, made small pile of cash, and retreated to the cooler climate in the south.

The inability to develop a full-time residential workforce led to fly-in, fly-out, because it suited the companies and the workers thanks to the removal of the tax break.

Driverless technology takes the destruction of northern communities to the next level. Not only will the people on site be fly-in, fly-out, with no roots in the region, but some of the northern “workers” will never even visit the north.

Unfortunately, two powerful forces are conspiring to ensure that the day of the fully-automated mine is not far away. They are:

• The so-called skills shortage which is really code for mining companies failing to invest in the training of their own workers.
• The profit incentive for companies to cut their high-priced workforce.
• The lack of political debate at a time when personality politics prevails and all that anyone can think about today is Rudd v Gillard.