COVID-19: who’s going full doomsday prep on this?

Scotty T said:
Stromlo isn't closed, and Handlebar has a takeaway licence now. I don't expect it to last long with everywhere else closing and I reckon there'll be a lot of people there tomorrow which will push a closure. I'm not going over the weekend, many options at my back door with no or very few other people around.
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I'd like to get one last lap in for a while, but agreed. Maybe Kowen will be better for social distancing, and tamer/lower risk trails.
 
Kerplunk said:
Didn’t say they stole them.. We were preparing our heath system for the rona to swamp us Feb right? Just used a lot of masks during the fires.. We now don’t have enough supply and we now know during that important preparation phase our supplies were sent out the back door via the ccp soft infulence.. The same ccp that lied and hid the virus for months.. How exactly do you think the general public will react to that?
That’s why the story was published in is in the public interest.. Personally I am interested in the infulence issue, not the humanitarian aspect of it.

And btw the CCP should be supplying the world with medical supplies, they created this mess. They should be footing the economic bill as well..
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They didn't go out any backdoor, that's a mischaracterisation of what happened.

They bought them on the public market, just like Australia is doing in China now and other countries. I have people close to me who are directly involved in that effort. As I said, 20+ million masks and assorted PPE arrived in Australia from another country not 24hrs ago. Why is China any different to us?

How will the general public react? Probably ignorantly indignant and outraged because people are mischaracterising the situation as an act of deceit when it was nothing of the sort. They publicised the fact that they were doing it, as they were doing it. They hid nothing and it was clear that they were acting on behalf of their govt.

As was mentioned up the page, the interesting issue is that this company was able to pivot, forego profit making and act on govt direction. That's because it is an arm of the CCP, it's a state owned enterprise controlled by the Shanghai provincial govt. This is the kind of issue countries need to consider when we look at allowing Huawei to invest in our national infrastructure, when we allow large Chinese firms to lease our ports and other assets critical to Australia's national security. And finally, even just allowing Chinese SOEs to operate in Australia, because it is now 100% clear that their priority aim is not always market driven operations but advancing the strategic interests of the CCP.
 
bear the bear said:
We heard from a couple of sources today that the next stage of the lockdown will commence Monday
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We keep getting snippets of info but only some of it actually happens, shows that the Gov doesnt actually have the timing of their plan set in stone... really just playing it day by day on information from their advisors... weighed up against what it will cost them.

Gravel ride for us today, less risk of a crash to avert sitting in any kind if waiting room or being near anybody.
 
China literally paid our asking price for commodities in a free market?

If capitalism is so great, and we needed them more, why didn't we negotiate a better deal for ourselves by pricing them appropriately then?

Or do we only like it when people do as we ask when it ends up fucking them over?
 
bear the bear said:
We heard from a couple of sources today that the next stage of the lockdown will commence Monday
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Have heard simar. Was told to expect police patrols etc...I chuckled about that part. I guess suburbanites don't see police roaming the streets often.

Friends in most govt levels are almost all se up working from home.

bear the bear said:
Only affects those with hair... you'll be right ;)
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It's about the human touch. We wi be getting a 15 minute scalp polish!

moorey said:
I want my 15 minutes, regardless :(
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johnny said:
when we allow large Chinese firms to lease our ports and other assets critical to Australia's national security.
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Interesting touch on a local issue there...but how would it have been significantly different had the port lease here in Newcastle been won by one of the (not Chinese) mega mining companies already operating in the Hunter Valley? Would they have put Australia's national security above their profits? It's hard to be sure.

Orica certainly have a patchy reputation locally for not giving a shit beyond profits.
 
johnny said:
They didn't go out any backdoor, that's a mischaracterisation of what happened.

They bought them on the public market, just like Australia is doing in China now and other countries. I have people close to me who are directly involved in that effort. As I said, 20+ million masks and assorted PPE arrived in Australia from another country not 24hrs ago. Why is China any different to us?

How will the general public react? Probably ignorantly indignant and outraged because people are mischaracterising the situation as an act of deceit when it was nothing of the sort. They publicised the fact that they were doing it, as they were doing it. They hid nothing and it was clear that they were acting on behalf of their govt.
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I don’t disagree, I responded to you and others that said it was a BS story.. I was making the argument it wasn’t, and it was in the public interest. Hence why I provided reasoning why fairfax chose to run it.. It’s not necessarily my personal belief. But to just write off the entire story as BS without taking the time to consider the ccp infulence, isn’t particularly clever either.

johnny said:
As was mentioned up the page, the interesting issue is that this company was able to pivot, forego profit making and act on govt direction. That's because it is an arm of the CCP, it's a state owned enterprise controlled by the Shanghai provincial govt. This is the kind of issue countries need to consider when we look at allowing Huawei to invest in our national infrastructure, when we allow large Chinese firms to lease our ports and other assets critical to Australia's national security. And finally, even just allowing Chinese SOEs to operate in Australia, because it is now 100% clear that their priority aim is not always market driven operations but advancing the strategic interests of the CCP.
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Yes exactly, this is what I found most interesting and why I chipped in.. I think this was the original angle of the story but was executed poorly by fairfax.
 
pink poodle said:
Interesting touch on a local issue there...but how would it have been significantly different had the port lease here in Newcastle been won by one of the (not Chinese) mega mining companies already operating in the Hunter Valley? Would they have put Australia's national security above their profits? It's hard to be sure.

Orica certainly have a patchy reputation locally for not giving a shit beyond profits.
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The difference is that we expect a company to act on market principals to the benefit of a corporation owned by shareholders, etc. etc. We don't expect them to spy, conduct espionage/sabotage or pay any interest in what Australia is doing in terms of national defence, etc. You cannot assume the same with a Chinese SOE because their goals are national, not market based. We have laws in Australia to protect national interest over an above market behaviour and it's more likely that a company won't risk the big fines/divestment that comes with contravention. However, you do expect an SOE to be used by the Chinese state to do so because they have greater resources to do so in ways that reduce the likelihood of detection and they are willing to risk fines/divestment because their goals are not market driven.
 
Kerplunk said:
I don’t disagree, I responded to you and others that said it was a BS story.. I was making the argument it wasn’t, and it was in the public interest. Hence why I provided reasoning why fairfax chose to run it.. It’s not necessarily my personal belief. But to just write off the entire story as BS without taking the time to consider the ccp infulence, isn’t particularly clever either.

Yes exactly, this is what I found most interesting and why I chipped in.. I think this was the original angle of the story but was executed poorly by fairfax.
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The News.com coverage was even worse, they used terms like 'secretly raided', and silly shit like that.

I'm not sure that it's even public interest that they were buying medical kit, every country is doing it all over the world at the moment. You either cover the story in context - that countries are scrounging, without singling China out - or you don't cover it at all. It also shows that the news depts are not on the ball as this shit was on Twitter months back, framed as Chinese citizens in Australia sending back plane loads of kit to help the people of Wuhan. The coverage had a VERY different character then as it was about supporting the suffering folk of Wuhan, not those nasty Chinese taking our stuff. That note only seems to have changed now that we're all scared of the same fate.
 
Jeffrey Wilson

@JDWilson08

Today's (not-so) fun fact: Australia imports about $860 million of soap products a year, mostly from Indonesia, Malaysia and China. Here's hoping those regional value chains hold up... (Source: DFAT Comp Aus Trade '18)
 
johnny said:
The difference is that we expect a company to act on market principals to the benefit of a corporation owned by shareholders, etc. etc. We don't expect them to spy, conduct espionage/sabotage or pay any interest in what Australia is doing in terms of national defence, etc. You cannot assume the same with a Chinese SOE because their goals are national, not market based. We have laws in Australia to protect national interest over an above market behaviour and it's more likely that a company won't risk the big fines/divestment that comes with contravention. However, you do expect an SOE to be used by the Chinese state to do so because they have greater resources to do so in ways that reduce the likelihood of detection and they are willing to risk fines/divestment because their goals are not market driven.
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I don't disagree. It would be nice if private companies were a little more compliant, but they do like to flaunt the laws from time to time...usually in the arena of taxation, environment, and worker's rights.

There was some very interesting things here around the end of the naughties and into early 20teens with a large development company that has Chinese govt ties.

I purchased a non-apple phone just before Christmas. I specifically chose not to buy a Huawei.

What was the Australian company called that were selling paper for printing money on in SE Asia again? Or those guys that were exporting wheat to the Middle East?
 
361450
 
If we're looking at increasing lockdown measures, I hope they go harder on those supposed to be in self-isolation and quarantine at home. They're the fuckers we need to be worried about - the asymptomatic that are ignoring the authorities. I think it was yesterday where I saw on the ABC that of 88 people the Vic police visited to ensure they were doing the right thing, only 70 were found to be at home. Clearly some don't give a rats arse. I say from now on, anyone returning to Australia or getting off a boat is forcibly kept in quarantine for 14 days, just as we did with those returning from Wuhan originally. Otherwise we'll be forever chasing spot fires and could end up like the US where community transmission is going undetected and it explodes again and all of us doing the right thing get screwed over.

It would be good to get the tech companies like Apple and Google to use their phone tracking data to build a picture of just how compliant the country is with their social distancing / isolation? It's already being done in the US.
 
Kerplunk said:
www.theage.com.au

Foreign Investment Board braces for Chinese takeovers of distressed Australian assets

"We can't allow foreign state-owned enterprises and their business fronts to use COVID-19's economic carnage as a gateway to swoop distressed businesses and assets," one MP said.
www.theage.com.au www.theage.com.au

More ccp influence issues ahead or scaremongering?
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I think the article and the conversation had here today covers the relevant points already. That article was nowhere near as badly constructed as the one about purchasing PPE.

Changes were made to the way the FIRB works and the way the Aust national security community considers foreign investment in the wake of Landbridge/Darwin Port. They are prepared for the hard questions regarding critical national infrastructure. The businesses that aren't related to the national interest, such as retail, etc. are fair game in a global market. (cue discussion about the levels of foreign investment that China blocks from either side of the border...)
 
PM just amped things up again.

Mandatory 14-day quarantine for returning travellers as of midnight Saturday - they'll be locked up in hotels in their port of arrival.

Army to assist in enforcing voluntary home isolation.
 
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