Australia is apparently about 25% dependent.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-countries-most-dependent-china-imports/
US is 14%. BS you hardly find anything not “made in china” in supermarket. Same as in Australia.
25% is laughable. Add another 74% and you’ll be closer to correct.
I know you’re just being hyperbolic for effect, but 25% is already extremely high.
It’s not surprising we’ve gotten to this point though. Seeing as we’ve offshored all our manufacturing jobs in search of higher profits for shareholders…
We don’t make shit in Australia anymore. We’re a country of holes in the ground and houses as the only economic output 😅
💯
We need to bring manufacturing back to Australia, and become self sufficient. The biggest lesson every single country should have learned in the last 6 years is that depending on other countries should be avoided at all costs.
America seems to be the only country that got the memo. While they’re trying to bring everything back in-house, we foolishly dived head first into being even more dependent on China.
America sends to be the only country that got the memo.
Press X to doubt this will occur in any meaningful way, or otherwise it will be coupled with an active further suppression of wages vs productivity (wage increases have already decoupled with productivity increases long ago).
America is controlled by moneyed interests even more than us, so I doubt whatever happens there with reshoring won’t be mostly positive for the working class. As most Australians will agree, the USA is not a country to be emulated.
In our case, government intervention is necessary, because market forces (where profit is the only incentive) makes rebuilding our manufacturing base impossible. No company will invest it they can’t make the highest profit possible.
The government is the reason why manufacturing isn’t feasible in Australia.
Interested for you to elaborate on why you think that is. Personally, I think it’s because we’re a high-income country and companies would prefer to do it in lower income countries so they can make more money.
Part of this had also come from globalisation and the removal of many tarrifs that once existed.
The tarrif question is tricky though, because in the short-term, it makes everything more expensive if they’re just applied immediately all at once, and in the long-term, other countries will apply retaliatory tarrifs, making our exports less competitive.
I’m not claiming to have all the answers, but it seems clear that the “free market” isn’t gonna solve this problem, some government intervention seems necessary (tarrifs, for example, are imposed by governments).
Investment into high tech manufacturing could also be an option, but again, it’s sure as hell not going to come from the private sector who won’t see immediate and excess profits from that endeavour.
Anyway, keen to hear why you think “government” is the reason we’re no longer manufacturing much here.
Government regulations have made it too costly and hard to manufacture anything here.
I would have instead thought it’s mostly the higher wages, no?
Regulations are written in blood, so I’m personally very sceptical about weakening them.
Practically the only forces I hear asking for weaker regulations are the companies who want to cut corners, and many people have died from that.
The community cost ends up being much higher.
We are actually very lucky (for now). Australia produces much more food than it consumes. About 70% of agricultural product is exported. We have (for now) food security. 25% is bad enough but to make out that most of what we consume is made o’s is propaganda.
Food isn’t what we’re dependant on China for though, it’s everything else - even our ability to capture solar and wind energy. All of our appliances. All of our technology. All of our clothing.
Our govt needs to put more effort into our own manufacturing for sure. Mind you, Australian manufacturers chose (and still choose) to make their stuff in China because of the lower wages. We have to be willing to pay more if we want products to be made in Australia. Recently the govt launched a ‘made Right Here’ campaign:
https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/timayres/media-releases/made-right-here-campaign-kicks
