Post by NFA on Nov 6, 2020 21:55:46 GMT 8
News that has China has banned the import of $560 million of Australian wheat should come as no surprise to the WA Government, according to WA One Nation Leader Colin Tincknell.
“I said six months ago when China imposed an almost 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley that unless Australian Governments started standing up to this bully it would keep returning,” he said.
“Since then, the communist bully has been back for our wine, our crayfish and now our wheat; how long do we stand by and do nothing.
“China is not our friend, it has no interest in a respectful trading relationship and governments at both a state and federal level need to recognise that it is their job to keep the bully at bay.”
Mr Tincknell said Premier Mark McGowan was riding high on a treasury full of dollars earned by selling off our iron ore to the Chinese but had failed miserably to protect the exports of any other industry that relied on the Chinese marketplace.
“We have leverage but the Premier is too scared to use it because of the potential for short-term political blow back,” he said.
“Premier McGowan is not looking at how our trading relationship with China will look in 10 or 20 years, he is looking only at getting elected for another term next March and to do that he needs to keep the iron ore dollars from China rolling in at full tilt.
“Instead, we should be calling China’s bluff and reminding President Xi Jinping that Australia, Western Australia in particular, has plenty of what the growing middle class in China wants and what its construction sector needs.”
Mr Tincknell said there was also plenty of evidence to show that China’s threats of retaliation against our iron ore exports were largely empty.
“Turning to Brazil for iron ore won’t work because there simply isn’t enough Brazilian ore to meet China’s demand, in fact, there is not enough iron ore from all other sources in the world to meet Chinese demand,” Mr Tincknell said.
“China’s stockpiles of iron ore are also reportedly now less than they were in July 2019 when analysts were reporting Chinese iron ore port inventories had fallen to their lowest level since October 2017.”
“Again, I call on the Premier to come out and defend out State from the bully.”
“I said six months ago when China imposed an almost 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley that unless Australian Governments started standing up to this bully it would keep returning,” he said.
“Since then, the communist bully has been back for our wine, our crayfish and now our wheat; how long do we stand by and do nothing.
“China is not our friend, it has no interest in a respectful trading relationship and governments at both a state and federal level need to recognise that it is their job to keep the bully at bay.”
Mr Tincknell said Premier Mark McGowan was riding high on a treasury full of dollars earned by selling off our iron ore to the Chinese but had failed miserably to protect the exports of any other industry that relied on the Chinese marketplace.
“We have leverage but the Premier is too scared to use it because of the potential for short-term political blow back,” he said.
“Premier McGowan is not looking at how our trading relationship with China will look in 10 or 20 years, he is looking only at getting elected for another term next March and to do that he needs to keep the iron ore dollars from China rolling in at full tilt.
“Instead, we should be calling China’s bluff and reminding President Xi Jinping that Australia, Western Australia in particular, has plenty of what the growing middle class in China wants and what its construction sector needs.”
Mr Tincknell said there was also plenty of evidence to show that China’s threats of retaliation against our iron ore exports were largely empty.
“Turning to Brazil for iron ore won’t work because there simply isn’t enough Brazilian ore to meet China’s demand, in fact, there is not enough iron ore from all other sources in the world to meet Chinese demand,” Mr Tincknell said.
“China’s stockpiles of iron ore are also reportedly now less than they were in July 2019 when analysts were reporting Chinese iron ore port inventories had fallen to their lowest level since October 2017.”
“Again, I call on the Premier to come out and defend out State from the bully.”