Worried about Chinese influence

A huge Costco store is to open at Glendale opposite Bunnings mid next year - no doubt it will be filled with stock from China, just think 2 huge stores full of made in China, and no doubt will mean the end of some small business's in the area ...

 

...... and yet here we are today......

We lost many opportunities due to lack of innovation.

government needs to change policies and provide support and incentives to business’ so we can compete and make it viable to manufacture here

look at what other smart developed countries are doing and piggy back on this

 

Slightly off topic - not just manufacturing and not just China.

Many jobs are completed by non Australians, think phoning your telco, accounting services or web development.

While employee benefits such as generous leave entitlements are seemingly great, there is a tipping point where Australians price themselves out of a job.

 

I totally agree that government has to lay the foundation and had been asleep at the wheel for the last 4 decades (all parties) ... fortunately today is not tomorrow

 

Costco is actually pretty low on made in China content. Bunnings a different story, I would say the average small business would probably be higher percentage made in China again!

 

True but do we want to lose these benefits?

The likes of 7-11 and Uber have proved that immigrants will work for much less than our minimum conditions so an erosion of conditions for all is on the cards.

 

I know several Aussies who drive Uber.

 

We certainly don’t want to lose all benefits, however I believe these could be reviewed. One of the most obvious is sick leave accruing. If this was modified, to say accrue to a total of 20 days, that would lead to less “sickies”, which means greater efficiency and reduced cost for the business.

There is also a push for casual workers to receive leave entitlements. Casual workers receive a higher $ rate to compensate for no leave. If they also are entitled to leave, that is an additional cost to the business.

Every extra cost to the business tips the scale towards looking elsewhere to remain competitive.

 

I am building 3 villas atm, met with my builder yesterday

He mentioned that most of the products for my build comes from China.

Can you imagine the impact of going Australia only?? I doubt my builder would even accept this

Buying Australian products is great, we can all do something, but its not always going to be a viable proposition

 

Superannuation, employer contribution is it 9%???? Could this be reduced???

 

Currently 9.5%. Legislated to rise to 12% by 2025, but this is under review.

 

MTR

Global times is a ****-take propaganda outlet. Unfortunately they invest heavily in Twitter and Facebook to extend their message.

The bloke who used the picture of our military spreads just as much **** as Dan andrews, hence why their methodologies align. They have daily press conferences as spread their "wolf warrior" diplomacy, generally threatening every country with "consequences". The US has been successful in having 58 countries reject Huawei as a telecommunication 5g provider (Australia was first). Its the EU that is the big problem in tackling china, with Germany being the one who leads the EU and will not criticise china ... whether its their concentration camps in Xinyang (germany providing some great advice) or the Hong Kong destruction of democracy. We need the WEST to back each other and its the EU who is giving China real hope. Australia is the weak link. Its our fault we will rich before the rise of china and we will be rich again.

Don't fall for the media hype, when China tarriffed our barley, we had sold them to other asian countries within weeks. We just need to be more sensible. Have a mate crying over lobster, mate, you choose to sell 100% of your product to china, not locals, its concentration risk, learn to diversify, usual conversation that occurs with others such as a owner of a yarra valley winery, who blames Scomo, nah, blame yourself....

We all need to take stock of what we buy, but the fact of the matter is that aussies like things cheap....don't buy Hisense - buy Samsung. Don't buy Chinese Santiser, buy Aussie, voice your concern to companies such as sleeping duck who just moved manufacturing to china (idiots).

Perhaps the ATO can look at wechat histories for the last ten years and check sales and imports of baby formula, ugg, wine......and tax them? Some sellers are turning over a million dollars tax free.

If we want cheap labour ok go to india or another asian country (check all your shirts in the cupboard for where they are made). If you want manufacturing here, do what japan did 6 months ago and spent 2 billion moving manufacturing home....otherwise where is the incentive? in the end part of most business supply chain comes through china....look at the building industry why the hell do i have suppliers saying our windows are delayed from china? so we changed suppliers to all aussie made .....paid more but made me feel good.

Oh well rant over.

Cheers Ivan

 

This did make me think so have gone thru a mental checklist.

Windows made by a local supplier. Engineered timber floorboards from Europe. Kitchen to be made in Australia. External fibre cement cladding is made in Australia/NZ/Indonesia (not sure which). Frame from NZ pine. Timber bathroom vanities are from Indonesia. Roof from Colorbond. Bathroom tiles from Europe.

... granted some light fittings and taps are probably Chinese (haven't checked them all) - possibly the insulation too - but it's not hard to build without excessive Chinese input.

 

And although you may have to pay a little more, the cost isn't prohibitive either.

 

I do acknowledge that most of my first fit plumbing and electrical is probably Chinese ... but these could be produced in Australia at similar cost, with automation

 

Oh i'm sure everyone is aware of Product homepage - The Australian Made Campaign

so instead of a hose from china that you buy at bunnings buy Hoselink Products Australia | Garden Watering Systems

I don't own RM Williams boots as Im a thongs man, but buy them

You can go through the products list and find them.

Its a pity our govt did not focus on this early march when **** hit the fan, after all, if you operate a factory in china, they own the IP and once you close, or say you are leaving, you have to pay a bill to get the goods and IP out....believe me. Yet idiots like sleeping duck move there. Beyond belief. Instead the federal govt spent 30m redesigning the logo to look like the coronavirus.

Anyway love these hats HATS

Cheers Ivan

 

Wasn't it like this pre 90s? Australia use to be heavily dependant on the UK and then Japan before cheap labour sucked us into China. It's pretty much consumer greed and the "need to have this that" really. I remember as a 6 year old in 1987 nagging my mother for a watch as a kid, she refused to buy me a Casio watch and got me something from Forges back in the day that was made in China, cheapest she could find. Even in my teen years I remember Reeboks being produced in the UK and then South Korea before being in China. Dad used to say how great Korean products were and cheap.

China needed the money and started manufacturing...the West desperately wanted to get rid of manufacturing industries - low value goods ones anyway that were toxic and polluting as fast as possible - winning seller and buyer, done deal.

Back when I was a grad in 2003...first job at a very small manufacturer of latex stuff - be in kitchen gloves to connies..the boss back then used to joke that at my grad level wage (40K at the time) he could hire nearly an entire team in China.

Cheap labour that is why. But electronics isn't such a straight forward thing. They may be made in China or assembled in China but what is actually designed in China is very little. For example, on a circuit board you may find many chipsets from the US, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Germany. Secondly many of the manufacturing machines themselves come from Japan or Germany...so most value add is actually from there not China.

Why would it be crazy to manufacture in China? Cheap labour, lax labour laws, no unions, lax environmental laws...etc. list goes on. Back in the day when they were dirt poor, you'd even get free factories - the local town would build them and something like a 5-10 year tax free bonus.

Pretty surprised most companies didn't move their manufacturing to India instead?? When you think about it...makes much more sense. English educated workforce, is pretty central in the world really and has somewhat democratic values?? They have two coastlines which can serve East/West markets with transportation costs cut down with ease due to proximity.

 

I guess we need to look at what companies In oz are supplying/selling in Australia, and no surprises here

For example, Bunnings, K-mart to name a few been criticized for stocking China products over oz

 

By all means buy Australia, I am doing the same .....but its a drop in the ocean, we are the little guy

.... and here we are today..... manufacturing is dead

Plenty of info on this..... google where Australia stands today in terms of innovation Compared to other developed countries..... bottom of the list

Sadly our government put all their eggs in one basket mining and natural resources. Why I say we need to look at diversifying not only trading partners but also industries so we can grow, and not dependent on China as we are today

Lets hope government can learn from this