Maybe Australia should go back to taking orders from the United Kingdom?

I might add, the oft expressed contempt for "colonials" of all sorts by Poms masks the deep insecurity engendered by the losses during ww2 in the European and Pacific theatres by their inbred "lords" who controlled government by hereditary influence.

Australia sent the flower of her manhood in 2 wars to help the Mother Country and in the 2nd war left herself defenseless and was attacked by Japan on our mainland.

The Japanese were turned back at Kokoda and at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Great Britain could not help- thankfully Russia and the USA stepped in and changed the course of the war, and both Great Britain and Australia survived. During the most dangerous period for Australia- the defending garrisons in Australia were wholly American as all the Australian men were already in Europe defending British interests. They met with the same contempt by the British as you have casually expressed above.
Australians have not forgotten this.

The failure of will at Suez postwar by the same cousin marrying peerage government showed Australia and the world that "Great" Britain as you like to style it was not to be depended on.
Must hurt to lose a global empire founded by military force and enforced by racist brutality.
Slave plantations were invented by Britain along with concentration camps for women and children- starved into submission during the Boer war.

Thus the alliance between Australia, New Zealand and USA was born.

So, your typical pommie snide remarks with the narrative of UK as cultural and moral mentor is a poor joke.
And- the joke is on you.
You can't rest on the laurels of 100 years ago.
Read a little history if you would like to look slightly less absurd.
It is not a good look.
Don't take it personally, it is a British shortcoming, like a Royal in rags.

nemo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 15, 2020 4:25 pm I can promise you one thing, Aussies will live in a tin shed before they knuckle under and kowtow to these cunts.

Too late.

nemo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 15, 2020 5:51 pm Australians have not forgotten this.

Maybe it's time you did? The world has moved on. Nobody alive today is either responsible for, nor can they take credit for, anything that happened in a very different time with very different attitudes, morals and beliefs.

I've always found it bizarre when people talk of countries as if they are individual people. It's the governments of the day who happen to be in charge at any particular time who make the decisions. For democratic countries, those governments change every four or five years and slowly, over time, so do the attitudes, morals and mentalities. As a typical example off the top of my head, just within 30 years, we've gone from a British Conservative government who banned homosexuality being discussed in schools to that very same political party who, against the wishes of many of the populous, introduced gay marriage.

The world moves on, the old guard die off and new people replace them. Countries are organic and constantly evolving. We've largely forgiven Germany and Japan for WWII because not only do we know that the people alive in those countries today had nothing to do with it, but similarly, the people alive in other countries do not suffer from it.

Saying that Australians have not forgotten something that happened at a time before either you or me were even born is simply illogical and serves no positive purpose whatsoever.

Back on topic, I'm very keen for this CANZAC idea to get off the ground once Brexit is done with. I think some sort of union between Australia, NZ, UK and Canada would have great potential.

The days of the penal colonies are over. Time for a jailbreak with the poms running scared.

And to hell with China, pull the bandaid and get it over with.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it

Are you Irony Deficient Mr Bingham ?
There are tablets for that I think.

Now that I have meted out justice, and some history to the unwashed, back OT.
China’s steelmakers are understandably frustrated as they watch the price of iron ore - the commodity on which they are so dependent - soar into the stratosphere and eat away at their profits. And the most frustrating element is there is little they can do about it.

The fact that they are attempting to have hard-hitting conversations with the two largest Australian suppliers, Rio Tinto and BHP, about the runaway prices suggests they have limited leverage.

On the face of it the attempts to bully iron ore producers seem absurd, given the suppliers don’t set the price. It is determined by supply and demand and one of the major reasons the price is on a tear is that China’s appetite for iron ore is rising faster than supply is being produced.
(The other is that supply from Brazil has been severely constrained - which has nothing to do with Australia’s producers).

The latest price spike - which saw iron ore break through the $160 barrier - has been exacerbated by a 13 per cent fall in November exports sent through West Australia’s major hub at Port Hedland.

China’s steel industry peak body, China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), appears to be suggesting that Rio and BHP have in some way manipulated the price through what they are calling "possible violations of laws and regulations" and are calling for Chinese regulations to crack down on suppliers.


It is understood that in its meetings with BHP, CISA was attempting to get guidance or commitment on next year’s supply given the upcoming West Australia cyclone season. China is also concerned about the proposed moratorium on approving new projects following recommendations made by the inquiry into Rio Tinto’s Juukan Gorge cave blast.

Publicly releasing the threat made to Rio and BHP did produce some price response. Iron ore fell by 3.7 per cent to $US154.37 on Tuesday. Whether this piece of jawboning can override the dynamics of supply and demand is questionable. It’s a tactic that the Chinese steelmakers have employed in the past - one they dust off when iron ore prices start moving too fast.

Back in 2010, China Iron and Steel Association attempted an iron ore boycott, but it failed miserably.

The Chinese government’s massive post-COVID economic stimulus - driven through spending on infrastructure and property - is highly reliant on steel which in turn is reliant on iron ore.

Realistically any curtailment of Australian iron ore inputs would only put additional pressure on iron ore prices.

For most if not all Australian goods exported to China, it's a buyer's market. Maybe not the same brands or the equivalent quality, but China can source everything from wine, timber, beef, lobsters and now coal from other countries.

The leverage China has over Australian suppliers of most goods and services is immense.

But iron ore is a seller's market and Australia is the seller. The doubling in its price over the past year is a testament to that.

While China must be unwilling to shoot itself in the foot by messing with iron ore supply, it has stepped up its trade retaliation through an informal blacklisting of Australian coal imports.

It’s a move that China has been flirting with for several months and has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coal stuck floating outside Chinese ports.

While it is still not yet an official edict, the state-run Chinese newspaper, the Global Times, has reported China has decided to allow its coal power stations to import supply from other countries - but not from Australia.

For Australia the inclusion of coal in this China trade war has been the most costly one to date.

A total ban of Australian coal exports to China would cost about $14 billion in export income - an amount that swells to around $20 billion when other products such as wine and beef, which have been recently targeted, are included.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has called Chinese authorities to rule out the reports of the coal bans. But like similar recent pleas made by the Australian government this one is likely to fall on deaf ears.

China steelmakers have the ability to replace Australian coal with imports from Russia, Mongolia and Indonesia but steelmakers have also needed to source more expensive domestic coal.

Thus the Chinese government is in part responsible for the profit pinch being felt by its own steelmakers.

It would be additionally galling to China that the rise in the iron ore price is offsetting the economic punishment it is looking to inflict on Australia in response to the escalating diplomatic stoush.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/compani ... 56np3.html