What are YOU doing right NOW

[fwdoz]

It just does not want to stop

 

[Hawkear]

A lot shorter to compile a list of those with no components from China than of those with. It is difficult - even in the case of Snowy Mountain vans that started this, to not buy them would put hundreds of Australians out of work. Even for entirely Australian-owned businesses, we just don't make in Australia enough components that are required for most things that we manufacture here. And we probably could not do so if we tried - we lack both investment capital and workers. You can't do much more than check if a company is dominantly Australian-owned and whether it is dominantly manufactured here - and perhaps whether that part that is not made here is made by other than China.

And "Australian owned" is a can of worms itself - it simply means more than 51% Australian owned - a number of major Australian companies are nevertheless owned tens of percent by China (just less than 51%). And companies like Energy Australia are actually Chinese owned. China does not have a huge investment though (e.g. Belgium has nearly five times as much invested in Australia than China, the UK has 8 times as much, the USA 12 times as much). All 4 of our biggest banks are majority USA-owned, BHP is 73% USA owned, Woodside Petroleum 74%,. China appears to be pulling out of Australia anyway.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56234776

View attachment 5482

This graph illustrates just how little of our own industry we own. Some would say that regardless of who owns them companies headquartered in here still provide employment and revenue for the government.
The problem is that by losing control at board level, we also lose control over decisions that affect the social well-being of our population.
How did we get to this situation?
My opinion only is that as a nation we seem very suspicious even shortsighted when it comes to taking risks and reinvesting in our own companies. Many of our best and brightest ideas and people have been lost internationally because of lack of risk taking here by our captains of industry.
At the average Joe level maybe this is also a National trait stemming from our view of ourselves as working class people who should not be seen on the other side of the capitalist divide by owning shares in our large nationally headquartered businesses.

 

[user 4386]

This graph illustrates just how little of our own industry we own. Some would say that regardless of who owns them companies headquartered in here still provide employment and revenue for the government.
The problem is that by losing control at board level, we also lose control over decisions that affect the social well-being of our population.
How did we get to this situation?
My opinion only is that as a nation we seem very suspicious even shortsighted when it comes to taking risks and reinvesting in our own companies. Many of our best and brightest ideas and people have been lost internationally because of lack of risk taking here by our captains of industry.
At the average Joe level maybe this is also a National trait stemming from our view of ourselves as working class people who should not be seen on the other side of the capitalist divide by owning shares in our large nationally headquartered businesses.

I don't think it is "us", it is the entire world economic system that works that way (and of course it also works in reverse - Australians are majority owners of some overseas companies, but of course we have limited assets to invest so our international investment holdings are not all that large).

Likewise I don't think in the main that we lack willingness to take risks - it is just that we lack capital to invest in taking risks.
'By 2000, direct share ownership in Australia was higher than in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and New Zealand (as a proportion of their adult populations)", and now "35% of Australians directly own ASX-listed shares" Many more are invested in shares indirectly through their Super accounts. It is simply that Australia has a limited population size, which limits capital available for local investment, so cannot make big investments in Australia.

"still provide employment and revenue for the government" is probably understating it a lot. Iron ore, gas, coal, metals etc earn us nothing in the ground and we have not had the money to invest in them. Farming land can only produce if you have the money to develop it, and see us through bad years. It is only because we developed our minerals than China has not been able to blow us out of the water with sanctions. We can say these things are "ours" but only so far as they sit there undeveloped until such time as we can afford to develop them in another century or so - in the meantime they are rocks we walk over (or mostly never visit with some exceptions on this website). And their development is why we did not crash in the GFC (when most of the world did crash) and why we may get through covid with only a light recession (I hope)! It is why we can afford to import the cars that we cannot afford to make, the houses and apartments we cannot afford to build, the medicines that keep us alive.

I would also like it to be otherwise, but it is difficult to see how it could be. Without the development we have had financed from international financiers we would economically still be a Sri Lanka or Greece or Tonga instead of one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

 

[Solid Luck]

It just does not want to stop

I'll raise you fwdoz lol

 

[user 4386]

I'll raise you fwdoz lol

What part of the world are you in?? I live on the coast in Victoria but I could still have a nice paddle in my kayak on the lake (i.e. park) opposite my house. Not so much rain here, but it comes down the rivers, out through their banks underground, and has raised the water-table a metre and a half over about 50 sq km. Everything is saturated and the town is floating on underground water!

I love the way everything is ascribed to climate change. ABC TV this moring was telling us how we have to revise the limits of our once in 100 years flood areas because of climate change. What they did not mention is that rainfall happened to be well BELOW average for the 20 years to 2018. We are in a La Nina event, not in some sort of global climate change deluge! Green blogs say otherwise, the media says other wise, but these are the facts (as BOM and climate scientists well know).

Well I guess it gives governments an excuse for building lower than the 100 year mark for decades, and will give insurance companies a chance to increase premiums everywhere. however overall, things have been getting dryer on average. Not starting a climate argument, just showing what the BOM publishes if people (media, blogs, pollies) bothered to read it. And they are the ones who measure it.



Same story if we go right back to 1911, including for stream flows - BOM says:

"'The observed long-term reduction in rainfall across southern Australia has led to even greater reductions in streamflows. For example, the mean annual streamflow into Perth water storages has dropped from 338 GL during the period 1911–1974 to 134 GL during the subsequent years from 1975–2017. During this latter period there is a continuing decline to a mean annual inflow of 47 GL during the last six years. Declines in streamflow have also been observed in four drainage divisions: the Murray–Darling Basin, South East Coast (Victoria) and South East Coast (New South Wales) (which include Sydney and Melbourne), and the South Australian Gulf (which includes Adelaide). In each of these drainage divisions between two thirds and three quarters of streamflow records show a declining trend since the 1970s".

 

[Solid Luck]

@goldierocks . That was around Talbot earlier today

 

[user 4386]

@goldierocks . That was around Talbot earlier today

Seems to be missing us further towards the coast (we don't need it). But I guess we will see it come downsrtream....

 

[fwdoz]

I'll raise you fwdoz lol

I got half an hour in for 2 ant head sized leadshot before it turfed it down. Was lucky to get out on the flooded track

 

[Moneybox]

I just finished cutting a hole 270mm deep into a bastard granite rock.

 

[Simmo]

Why Phil, why???

 

[Bjay]

Was gonna ask the same.

 

[Moneybox]

Why Phil, why???

Mrs M has been given the job of planting a series of Geocaches around town. This one will be hidden at a granite rock monolith just down the road.

 

[Simmo]

Awesome!! Well no one will be stealing that one?!!

 

[Manpa]

I’m sitting here hoping for just a little bit of global climate warming, it’s dropped to 10 degrees, blowing a gale, hailing on the 1st of Nov in Adelaide. Sorry temp has dropped to 9. So from 15 to 9 degrees in ten minutes.

 

[Mackka]

Snowing in one part of SA i believe.

 

[user 4386]

Snowing in one part of SA i believe.

I remember it snowing at Wilpena Pound a few years ago - I have been snowed in on the Victorian High PLains in January (Mt Wellington hut) and got very nervous driving in a March blizzard one night between Mt Beauty and Glen Wills,.

 

[Dave's Office]

Snowing in one part of SA i believe.

Yeah mate, it's freezing all over SA, unbelievable for November.

 

[Mackka]

Send some cool weather over here please mate.

 

[Jaros]

We've already had our winter!!

 

[Mackka]

Gold Trip wins the Melbourne Cup, what an omen. Mackka