Covid 19 -

[Charliewool]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

If we had any balls we would start putting tariffs on their cheap garbage that undercuts our quality products.

Government too scared to lose trade though. We would be better off in the long run doing it, and finding alternative markets for our stuff. The UK after brexit is a perfect example. I'm pretty sure we are already trying to get a trade deal going with them atm.

Too late she cried!
Aussie Governments, (regardless of Libs or Labor) have been gradually eroding the guts and soul of Australia for 40+ years!
Not for a moment am I against change and progress, but seriously... Short sightedness and the almighty buck has ruined the joint!
Privatisation of EVERYTHING! (Behind the scenes, just WHO are the owners?)
Whether a pandemic, or a global catastrophic event, the results of selling our soul over the years, were ALWAYS going to come home to roost!

[Pis-ton broke]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

, were ALWAYS going to come home to roost!

agreed , and many more agree. but pollies don,t seem to get it, its like there happy to sell out australia for short term profit, lets look at the BIG PICTURE here!

australia has only been civilized for 200+ years, compared to china that's nothing. ive read in y.t. political clips (the comments part) that some chinese already call Australia " new china"

and i honestly believe this is where we are heading. slowly, slowly little steps, but they will get there , but imo ozzy pollies can,t afford to be a soft touch.

[Work Horse]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

Forget Chinese friggin imports! (Who wants the crap?)
They ripped the rug right out from under us with THEM imposing tariffs on OUR wool!
And we meekly accepted it! It absolutely decimated the entire Australian wool industry.
Anyone remember the saying “Australia... riding on the sheep’s back”?
We literally WERE!!...
The best, the finest quality wool on the planet... and in incredible abundance!
And WE feckin allowed “THEM”... (China) to impose a tariff on Australia’s “bread & butter” WOOL!!!
Shouldn’t AUSTRALIA have been calling the shots????? (Nope, let’s just keep selling our soul!)
I know I’ve said this before!.... But, I’ll say it again!
Australia “SHOULD BE” the wealthiest country on earth!
The mineral reserves, the iron ore, the oil and gas reserves, the cattle, the sheep, the grains, the food grown and produced...
We ALL should be living like friggin Sheiks! (And they ONLY have oil)
There should be zero debt, zero poverty... EVERY Australian should be living on easy street... FOREVER!

But.... NOPE!!! The mighty “hollier than though” governments over the years have pi55ed the whole feckin lot against the wall like drunken sailors!!
And even worse.... Sold us feckin out!!!
(Rant over!....)

Australia is the second wealthiest country in the world behind Switzerland, depending on which measure you use.
https://www.investopedia.com/article...apita-2016.asp
https://www.wikizero.com/en/List_of_...th-per-capita/

[PhilT2]

Originally Posted by superyob

Who let the crap into the country in the first place? Our goverment...

So you want the govt to have control over what you are allowed to buy?

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

Too late she cried!
Aussie Governments, (regardless of Libs or Labor) have been gradually eroding the guts and soul of Australia for 40+ years!
Not for a moment am I against change and progress, but seriously... Short sightedness and the almighty buck has ruined the joint!
Privatisation of EVERYTHING! (Behind the scenes, just WHO are the owners?)
Whether a pandemic, or a global catastrophic event, the results of selling our soul over the years, were ALWAYS going to come home to roost!

So what do we do, sit on our hands and take it? Now is the perfect time to start bringing some of our industries back here from China. Some companies are already doing it.

We should do what Japan is doing and offer incentives to get companies out of China, and back home.

It might take another 40+ years to unravel, but it will be bloody worth it not being under the heel of a communist state who tries to bully us, lies, steals IP, allows pandemics to spread due to their filthy way of living, and routinely performs cover ups.

They are scum, and the one blessing in disguise is the world is now starting to open their eyes to the CCP and their lies and deception.

[russellw]

The graphs for today are a drill down on some Asian countries.

The first group shows Bangladesh on a steep upward curve while Pakistan has started to flatten off after a steady climb. Indonesia, Kuwait and the UAE have all started to head in the right direction while Singapore has made good gains over the last few days.



The second group are mostly steep upward trends with only Bahrain and Oman trending downward.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by PhilT2

So you want the govt to have control over what you are allowed to buy?

I thought they already did.

[FTE217]

Interestingly about our sell out that I agree with BUT the consumer is another piece of the puzzle.
How many times during the early influx of import products did Aussie consumer pick the cheaper Import to the locally made higher priced one ? millions have.
We also have such a high cost of welfare (compared to many larger countries) and the rorters that Govco due to their lack of management and making harsh decisions don't due to losing votes have put their hand out to OS Investment to get dollars in the bank to offset incompetance Governace in the big picture BUT those voters don't want to do without.
Its a vicious woeful circle that we/consumers are also to blame for.
Aussie citizen also voted for minority parties thinking in protest towards the main 2 but all it has done is created more mess to Governance as we have all seen.

I need to head to Pura Vida join Charliewool for I don't see us getting out of this mess in a long time, or until we have a real LEADER who can convince the public we got to crawl before we can walk again.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by FTE217

Interestingly about our sell out that I agree with BUT the consumer is another piece of the puzzle.
How many times during the early influx of import products did Aussie consumer pick the cheaper Import to the locally made higher priced one ? millions have.
We also have such a high cost of welfare (compared to many larger countries) and the rorters that Govco due to their lack of management and making harsh decisions don't due to losing votes have put their hand out to OS Investment to get dollars in the bank to offset incompetance Governace in the big picture BUT those voters don't want to do without.
Its a vicious woeful circle that we/consumers are also to blame for.
Aussie citizen also voted for minority parties thinking in protest towards the main 2 but all it has done is created more mess to Governance as we have all seen.

I need to head to Pura Vida join Charliewool for I don't see us getting out of this mess in a long time, or until we have a real LEADER who can convince the public we got to crawl before we can walk again.

All these copycat rorter, are lead by our politicians rorting the system.

[PhilT2]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

If we had any balls we would start putting tariffs on their cheap garbage that undercuts our quality products.

Government too scared to lose trade though. We would be better off in the long run doing it, and finding alternative markets for our stuff. The UK after brexit is a perfect example. I'm pretty sure we are already trying to get a trade deal going with them atm.

The way a trade deal works is that they agree to allow us to sell in their country if we allow them to sell in ours. Nobody is going to make a one sided deal where we sell our coal in England and put their coal mines our of business but don't allow any of their products to compete with ours.
Maybe we could import UK made cars (made with Chinese or Indian parts) instead of Korean cars made with Chinese parts.
How are we better off?

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

The irony is they have no vested interest in it and are trying to protect Australia from foreign influences, unlike working for a foreign owned company digging up Australia's resources and flogging them off dirt (pun) cheap to another country.
Can we list how many 100% Aussie owned mining operations there are in Australia.
If we are going to trade with other countries lets do it like for like in values otherwise Australia could work towards being more self sufficient.

I reckon 60% of the Hunter Valley is now in China.

Our "quality of life", infrastructure etc etc would all be second rate if we did not have some kind of foreign ownership and investment.

Mining requires capital or a vested interest from a nation, thats the reason why you dont see many Australian owned companies.

Hate the game not the player, its internal policies that drive the fact we dont take advantage of "cheap" coal and gas here.

[FTE217]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

All these copycat rorter, are lead by our politicians rorting the system.

I doubt any Gov is 100% honest.
What I wish they could be made more accountable for, is the certain ones who take the back handers at our expense.

[superyob]

Originally Posted by PhilT2

So you want the govt to have control over what you are allowed to buy?

Do you not see the irony in your query???

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by PhilT2

The way a trade deal works is that they agree to allow us to sell in their country if we allow them to sell in ours. Nobody is going to make a one sided deal where we sell our coal in England and put their coal mines our of business but don't allow any of their products to compete with ours.
Maybe we could import UK made cars (made with Chinese or Indian parts) instead of Korean cars made with Chinese parts.
How are we better off?

By putting things we cannot make or grow ourselves in the deal. I'm sure we have a lot of things that we can't/won't make or grow here that we need.

[PhilT2]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

By putting things we cannot make or grow ourselves in the deal. I'm sure we have a lot of things that we can't/won't make or grow here that we need.

The UK has the same problem we do, they're a high wage country and now they have removed themselves from the EU they may not have easy access to that market, so now they can't manufacture in the large quantities needed to be really cheap.

China has cheap labour and a huge domestic market so they can afford to set up an assembly plant to manufacture a billion cell phones a year (2019 figures) Who can compete with that?

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by Tickford.

If China wants to kill their own that's one thing, but killing people from other countries is another.

The UN should probe. EU should probe. Every country in the world should probe.

China knew how badly it would affect their economy if they had contained this virus in China only. Instead, they deliberately let it spread around the world so that they weren't the only ones impacted.

If we are going down, you're all going down too mentality.

https://www.who.int/news-room/detail...rus-(2019-ncov)


"On 22 January, the members of the Emergency Committee expressed divergent views on whether this event constitutes a PHEIC or not. At that time, the advice was that the event did not constitute a PHEIC, but the Committee members agreed on the urgency of the situation and suggested that the Committee should be reconvened in a matter of days to examine the situation further."


The Emergency Committee had representation from US, Russia, France, Korea, Australia, Canada, China. Interesting no reps from UK or Germany. The decision to not call it a PHEIC was for economic reasons, the decision was split down the middle.



The media has been trying to obtain script of a briefing that the government had on the virus in early January under the Freedom Of Information act. It has been blocked. Full and transparent.


China has slapped a 80% tariff on barley for pushing US agenda. Guess who signed a free trade agreement with China in January that is heavily weighted towards agriculture? We have been stooged. The Art Of The Steal.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

“We ALL made a choice”???
“ALL” being the encompassing word!... I certainly wasn’t asked? Were you?
Anyhow.... I made MY feckin choice.....
Pura Vida...

I might learn Spanish and start a talk show in Costa Rica, you got any suggestions for a fat gringo looking to make it in Costa Rica?

Alternatively I'd make a good bartender cause I can talk ****

[Citroënbender]

Learn to tango like a champ?

[Tickford.]

russellw, can you stop posting COVID-19 stat's and graphs in the middle of everyone's China bashing posts please??

It totally disrupts the flow.

So rude!

[MITCHAY]

ACT planning to move to stage 2 next weekend depending on new cases. No new cases for 15 days so far.

[russellw]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

ACT planning to move to stage 2 next weekend depending on new cases. No new cases for 15 days so far.

.. and only 1 case in 23 days. The NT has also been case free for 16 days and SA for 11.

Sorry to interrupt the China discussion

[zilo]

Sucks to be In victoria....so many new cases...Maccas might have to shut down...people will starve in some western suburbs....4 or 5 retirement villages now...

[Tickford.]

[MITCHAY]

I'm struggling to understand at the high level how China has a legitimate complaint with regards to their investigation into dumping barley into Australia. How could it even be possible even with certain subsidies?

I understand that the investigation has been going on for a while but the announcement of this appears to be purely political.

We have recourse through the WTO which is likely to take a long time if even it is a favourable decision. Any retaliation will just result in tit for tat so I don't think we should do that blindly.

I really hope we are working hard to behind the scenes to lock down deals to diversify markets but this seems to take years at the best of times.

[CoupeKing]

Bored during lockdown? Call a women's rights group and ask to speak to the man in charge.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by zilo

Sucks to be In victoria....so many new cases...Maccas might have to shut down...people will starve in some western suburbs....4 or 5 retirement villages now...

Note to self...Melbourne is NOT Victoria.

[PooDog]

Originally Posted by FTE217

Interestingly about our sell out that I agree with BUT the consumer is another piece of the puzzle.
How many times during the early influx of import products did Aussie consumer pick the cheaper Import to the locally made higher priced one ? millions have.
We also have such a high cost of welfare (compared to many larger countries) and the rorters that Govco due to their lack of management and making harsh decisions don't due to losing votes have put their hand out to OS Investment to get dollars in the bank to offset incompetance Governace in the big picture BUT those voters don't want to do without.
Its a vicious woeful circle that we/consumers are also to blame for.
Aussie citizen also voted for minority parties thinking in protest towards the main 2 but all it has done is created more mess to Governance as we have all seen.

I need to head to Pura Vida join Charliewool for I don't see us getting out of this mess in a long time, or until we have a real LEADER who can convince the public we got to crawl before we can walk again.

Correct WE are to blame by being greedy tight asses and buying this Chinese crap and its destroyed every countries home grown industry .....this should be a real eye opener to not letting countries like China control goods that are essential ....look how they control who gets what when its in short supply

But how do you stop the human greed of people wanting cheaper and cheaper products .....and doing the research to find out that the product you thought was made locally have shifted the factory bto China?....and learning what products are locally made and spending the extra $ on it , its a hard sell ?.....then theres the pollies with the amount of $ involved you know theres back handers involved .....its not hard to tell by some of the decisions made , a few years back in NZ we desperately needed some locomotives , a company in Christchurch could make better and cheaper Loco's and they needed the contract to keep a large local workforce going , the contract went to China , the local company went broke everyone lost there jobs even though the managers said the Chinese locos were rubbish and they would have problems with them , which proved true..... the only explanation is corruption

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by PooDog

Correct WE are to blame by being greedy tight asses and buying this Chinese crap and its destroyed every countries home grown industry .....this should be a real eye opener to not letting countries like China control goods that are essential ....look how they control who gets what when its in short supply

But how do you stop the human greed of people wanting cheaper and cheaper products .....and doing the research to find out that the product you thought was made locally have shifted the factory bto China?....and learning what products are locally made and spending the extra $ on it , its a hard sell ?.....then theres the pollies with the amount of $ involved you know theres back handers involved .....its not hard to tell by some of the decisions made , a few years back in NZ we desperately needed some locomotives , a company in Christchurch could make better and cheaper Loco's and they needed the contract to keep a large local workforce going , the contract went to China , the local company went broke everyone lost there jobs even though the managers said the Chinese locos were rubbish and they would have problems with them , which proved true..... the only explanation is corruption

The China bashing and what they have "done" is a bit more complex than that.

Did you want to start talking about cost of living in Australia? Stagnant wage growth rates etc..all this plays a part in how much citizens have to spend.

If you are squeezed what did people/govco expect to happen?

Think the thread was better off with conspiracy theories, start another one up for the gradual dilution of the Australian economy if you must.

Interestingly, and not great, I know many suppliers in our area that are asking for staff to take leave and even Cummins has started to drop hours. Not good. And thats in mining that has been going pretty well through the whole saga. Iron is doing better than coal currently.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by PooDog

Correct WE are to blame by being greedy tight asses and buying this Chinese crap and its destroyed every countries home grown industry .....

So Australia's milk producers are Chinese? Last I checked they were Japanese, Canadian, French and Italian mostly.

Let's not forget that regardless of what the statistics say about people's income, a very large percentage of Australians struggle to make ends meet every week. The fat cats drag up the average making it appear Australians are wealthy on average but it just isn't true. Families have to buy whatever they can afford.

Easy to say boycott China but Australia isn't big enough to support our industries without exports.

Easy to tell the people who are relatively well off or not associated with industries relying on export to China.

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by prydey

Let's not forget that regardless of what the statistics say about people's income, a very large percentage of Australians struggle to make ends meet every week. The fat cats drag up the average making it appear Australians are wealthy on average but it just isn't true. Families have to buy whatever they can afford.

Too true. Average wage has remained stagnant, which in effect, means it has gone backwards. I was surprised to read how many people still rely on food banks, which is astonishing for a lucky country. I look around and I just can't see how that can be...but they are the facts.
On the point of "cheap chinese crap", well not long ago we would make fun of "made in Taiwan". How times have changed. Boeing and Tesla have factories in China, their manufacturing can be exceptional if given the right budget and specifications. I'm about to get another bluetooth ELM327 device for the falcon.....do I get a $20 that has served me well for 7 years, or fork out $100+ for a "genuine"? Easy choice.
On the topic of tariffs, it was interesting to read that they started their investigation in 2018, when WE imposed tariffs on their steel accusing them of dumping. But the fact they taken such a long time to take any action indicates they were somewhat willing to look the other way to keep good relations going. That was until Scomo recently picked up the phone and had a "constructive" conversation with Trump.
Also interesting that two of NZ's largest meat exporters have also been slapped with the same non compliance as the 4 in Australia, but they haven't been banned. Again this indicates they are willing to look the other way to keep good relations. Bear in mind, China has one of the strictest import regulations in the world. I read a report somewhere that it is nearly impossible to not get a "non compliance" on every crate when it reaches their port.