Australia China FTA - Free Trade Agreement.

So other than our farmers there are no clear winners ? It still doesn't explain why the government sounds shrill in trying to get this FTA completed. There has to be more to it, or am I just being cynical ?

 

Sorry I don't get it..
How does it undermine Australians wages and conditions or national welfare?
The quote from the Productivity Commission seems to me to say that more agreements equals more complexity which has potential for net costs to the community and future agreements need to be assessed rigorously with this in mind.

To me it doesn't say that such agreements have net costs to the community and undermine wages, conditions, well being and national welfare.

 

The difference is Australians complain when they are getting ripped off while a lot of foreign workers won't. My girlfriend is Cook Island. A lot of her friends come over to Australia and work in construction (mainly steel fixers) and they'll happily work for half the amount of Aussies because to them it's still a lot of money compared to back in the Islands. Most of them live frugally and send their money back to their family in the Islands. A couple of years ago the SA Government spent hundreds of millions building the South Road Superway and the majority of the construction workers were all from interstate. All the steel fixers were Islanders and their boss even forked out money for them to stay in apartments because it was still cheaper paying for accommodation for interstate workers than hiring locals. Than the SA Government wonders why it has an 8.2% unemployment rate...no good spending money to create jobs when they don't go to your own people.

 

LoL the Chinese will be opening up their services market to Aussies.

Aussie lawyers, bankers, accountants, techies etc. can work in Shanghai.

Of course the manual labourers will be feeling left out. But as you know, a great first world economy relies more on Intellectual Labour than Manual Labour.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-...at-baiada-plant-investigation-reveals/6554570

Why bother hiring Aussies for $20 an hour when you can import workers on 457 visas and pay them $11.50 an hour.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/work...chdog-scathing-of-baiada-20150617-ghq28d.html

http://www.smh.com.au/business/mini...ited-whistleblower-claims-20140404-362wt.html

The whistleblower says up to 200 white-collar 457 visa workers, about half of whom are Korean nationals aged under 30, are clocking up more than 84 hours a week. Many are female. They are employed by the contractor Samsung C&T and being paid about $16 an hour, the union says.

All it does is lead to higher profits for multinationals while the Government is forced to spend more money on unemployment benefits and the social consequences that derive from it.

 

Not just the Federal Government...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opi...cal-on-china-fta/story-e6frg76f-1227509867288

 

Seems like a law and enforcement issue to me.
Unfortunately the vulnerable can get taken advantage of (whether foreign or domestic).
Is it the taking advantage of the vulnerable of the taking of domestic jobs by foreigners that you don't agree with?
Personally I'd be happy if all got the same fair pay and conditions and it wouldn't matter to me whether they were foreign or national. As an employer I would like to employ the best/most productive. I'd expect an enforcement agency to check that I'm doing the right thing and expect to get punished If I'm not.
Surely you can't say - lets not have an FTA because our work standards compliance enforcement isn't up to scratch. Surely the answer is to improve the compliance enforcement.

 

It's the way of the world unfortunately. Australia the 51st state.

 

What will be interesting to see is when the very first China super-project is tabled before the Gubb and the Unions...

And they (the Gubb and Unions) put forth the usual list of allowances, pay rates, holiday pays, sick leave, smoko breaks, clean-up time, "too wet" pay, unfair dismissal procedures and rules, and god knows whatever other load of BS is usually attached to these sorts of industries and so forth and so on....

And the Chinese Employer - who probably ordinarily is used to paying their workers a bowl of rice a day or whatever, and can sack them on the spot for bugger-all, etc - sees these lists and goes; "WTF???"

It'll be hysterical.

 

The prospect of more exports to their markets is huge....

It may even encourage some new investment, manufacture - more jobs.

For example; when I was doing my apprenticeship in Golf back in the early '80's, the largest Australian manufacturer of golf shoes was a company called "Niblick".

They also had the largest share of the Aussie golf shoe market by a mile at that stage.

But; their sales to the USA - were approx 1% of the USA market apparently at that time.

That 1% was bigger than their entire Aus sales put together.

 

If it is so beneficial to Australian jobs as the government claims then why won't they produce the "detail"? That's because there is so much detail that needs to be thrashed out.They haven't even begun to talk to the labour party (who will eventually agree to the FTA) and there is no legislation proposed or before the house of reps. This has a long way to go yet before this is legislation.

 

LoL if the details haven't been produced yet, how come the unions are carrying out a scare campaign will all their whinges?

It's kinda ironic.

 

Cos that's the way politics works. The libs are attacking labour and vice versa it's a game they play and both are trying to get some political mileage out of it. There is a by-election in Canning and they both need some brownie points. The FTA will happen but not before it has been used for both their political ends.

 

Yeah I agree with this..

 

huh?

The whole agreement (all 17 chapters) which has already been signed but not legislated can be read here: http://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/chafta/official-documents/Pages/official-documents.aspx

So what details do you want? Labor are as usual looking out for their Union puppet masters, hell when your own greatest longest serving PM and former union head Bob Hawke is for the FTA you know damn well Shorten and Labor are ******* morons.

 

TA couldn't give a ***** about the Polls.

Polls mean cr@p - look how short the memories are regarding Labor's 6 years under Rudd/Gillard/Rudd.

Based on all that; I wouldn't pay any attention to a Poll if I was PM, and TA is rightly doing exactly that.

From what I've been observing since Libs got in (and I'm a Lib voter) - most of the attacking is from Labor - and in particular; Billy Bob, Tania Plibersek, Penny Wong, Jennifer Hanson Young and the entire Left section of the media; even Clive Palmer...and you can even chuck in the various Unions they all sleep with as well.

Pick any topic you like; you will not have heard any credit given where it is due; and the media are possibly the biggest disgrace of the bunch.

Meanwhile - and much to my frustration because I want to see some retaliation and see them start using a bit of voice against this constant and often innaccurate by way of ommission of real facts Lib-bashing rubbish - the Libs, and in particular TA, Joe, Scott Morrison, Julie Bishop and Mathias Cormann say next to nothing back.

It shows their class; and shows their ability to rise above the rubbish and just keep on plugging away at a very, very hard task to get the Country back into shape.

 

IMO, the FTA will help Australia compete internationally and on a stronger level with China. Without the FTA, New Zealand has the upper hand in diary products and Australian agricultural producers are hampered. There is scope for the agriculture sector to export more to China.

Current fear of unions and Labor that Australians will lose out to Chinese workers is exaggerated. The federal government facilitates the entry of Chinese investments and trade opportunities. It is not the responsibility of federal immigration to assess the skill level of workers for the work they are employed in if they apply only for temporary visas. Skill levels and registrations are the responsibilities of the state governments in conjunction with enforcement of work safety, work and office/work conditions. Correct me if I am wrong - foreign investments in Australia are not exempt from Australian domestic laws.

Of course, new Chinese investments will start with a clean slate and a work culture foreign to a unionised workforce. No one expects a foreign company not to have key personnel in its Australian operation so there will be temporary work visas.

 

I stand corrected and chastened Didn't manage to read every bit but yes looks like a done deal. A whole list of tradies will be able to enter Australia on 457's without having to meet Australian standards and Lawyers and accountants will be able to set up shop in China. Although I am not sure that they would cope with a Chinese judiciary that bears no resemblance to the British judiciary. Seeing that only about 25% of law graduates ever get a job practicing could be a great opportunity. Great opportunities for Chinese consortiums like Beijing Investment Fund and Yuhu to buy up Australian farms and export all the product to a clamouring market in China. It will be fine though as I am sure they will sell some of their produce back to Australia or maybe we could import from Chile or NZ. There won't be any earnigs for Australia so I wonder how they will pay for it mmmmm. But I geuss Australia is desperate now as the mining boom was wasted, there is little manufacturing of note and the farmers are struggling. Yep let's sell the farm that's a good idea.

 

No one is selling the farm and protectionism only ever leads to economic pain. As usual the hypocrisy of the unions is on full display; run a fear campaign based on xenophobia and ******** while they employ 40+ workers on 457 visas themselves.

 

So we can buy land in China?