2020

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Jun172020

Dan and Xi get Belt-and-Road cosy as the rest of us get alarmed

POLITICSJune 17, 2020

As tensions between China and Australia appear to escalate, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is holding tight to his special deal with China to join in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but at what cost to Australia’s national interests? The BRI is the Chinese Government’s signature foreign and economic policy – a $1.5 trillion mega project, first announced in 2013, that plans to build land and maritime trade routes around the globe, investing in infrastructure projects for pipelines, ports, railways and more in dozens of countries. It has been reported that China has already signed 170 memoranda of understanding with…

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Jun172020

Murray Rail Project mired in debt and corruption

RURAL AFFAIRSJune 17, 2020

by Chris McCormack Murray Basin Rail Project could cost double the budgeted $440 million Rail upgrades essential but gauge standardisation questionable Auditor-General says project “not yet achieving the outcomes expected” The Murray Basin Rail Project (MBRP), which aims to upgrade and standardise 1,055 kilometres of rail lines in Victoria’s northwest, linking freight trains to the ports of Geelong and Portland, has been variously described as a “monumental stuff-up” and a “debacle”. The $440 million joint state and federal government project ($220 million each) was announced in 2014 and was meant to be completed by the end of 2018. The five-stage…

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Jun172020

Infrastructure, yes; but, Prime Minister, we need manufacturing lifted to 15% of GDP by 2035

COVER STORY, ECONOMICS, POLITICSJune 17, 2020

by Patrick J. Byrne Morrison should announce plan for expanding manufacturing expanding to 15% of GDP by 2035: Creating around 1-2 million full-time, well paid jobs. With $1 trillion invested by government, new development bank, commercial banks and equity. Securing Australia’s economic and strategic future. Scott Morrison has announced the fast-tracking of around $72 billion in major infrastructure projects, but what he needs to announce is a plan to massively lift Australia’s manufacturing sector to 15 per cent of the economy by 2035.

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Letters

POETRY LETTERS & HUMOURJune 10, 2020

AN OLD PERSON’S OBSERVATION In the era between World War II and the mid 1970s, Australia could manufacture a vast range of products – planes, cars, ships and a million things in between. Practically anything we wanted could be made in Australia. Here we are in 2020 and, after selling our industries to mainly Chinese interests, all we can make now is fools of ourselves. If one wants proof of that, look at just one item – the submarine debacle. Patrick Lannen, MacLeod, Vic. WHY PICK ON HUAWEI? “As the World Turns” in News Weekly (May 16, 2020) had…

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