Cheering Team Australia

There are few things more satisfying than a diplomatic up yours directed at someone trying to do you damage.

Cheering Team Australia

It shows tenacity and strength as well as the famous Aussie irreverence.

Today  we did just that, this time to the Chinese Communist Party, with some good news on the export front.

Some important Aussie industries are thumbing their noses at the tyrants within the Chinese Communist Party.

We all know China has been trying to damage our economy by crippling some of our export industries.

The communists have targeted our barley, coal, copper, cotton, timber, sugar, wine and seafood industries because we had the impertinence to demand the truth behind their lies about the Wuhan Flu.

Economic analysis reveals their actions have reduced our exports to China by about $20 billion over the last year.  The good news is that most of that has been made up or offset by new buyers in other countries.

This is great news for our primary producers.

An over-reliance on one market, especially a pedantic and aggressive dictatorship like China, leaves us all vulnerable to their erratic behaviour.

By all accounts, the impact of the China trade tantrum this past year will be less than $1 billion.

There’s even more good news though. When we consider the booming price of iron ore, the totality of Aussie exports has grown significantly.

That is great news and buys us a bit of time to find some more amenable and co-operative trading partners.

But that doesn’t mean we are out of the woods economically.

Eventually China will find alternative suppliers of iron ore which is why we need to continue to broaden our global sales base in a whole range of export industries.

It’s also important to note that our wine and seafood export sector are still struggling and finding it hard to replace the high volume, high value Chinese market.

Around a third of Australian wine exports were previously sent to china so many in that industry are feeling the pain.  The Australian Southern Rock Lobster industry has been almost 100% reliant on the Chinese market and that has all but vanished too.

The problems in these two sectors will affect us all, but will be particularly felt in some of our regional communities.

These communities, often comprised of small vignerons and fishers, together with their families, workers and supply chains are some of what makes Australia great. They need to survive and that means they need our support through this tough time.

That’s why it was pleasing to see Trade Minister Dan Tehan, talking up a 'Team Australia' approach to win in Asia.

Personally I think our future economic fortunes are tied to Asia and the great opportunities will lay with our clean food and mineral products.

A co-ordinated approach to Asian nations, other than china, can help lessen our reliance on a single country but can also help prevent China from dominating the region, which is clearly its intention.

We’ve already made some strategic errors. Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party essentially prostrated themselves at the feet of the chinese while the wet Turnbull Bishop government demonstrated their gullibility in believing China had no interest in militarising the South China Sea.

I think the current PM has the balance right  – stick up for our country, maintain your dignity in the face of belligerence and give the Chinese, through renewed export success, a diplomatic up-yours.

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