Australia - you're standing in it
March 32,900 arrivals (Visas Temp 3,300 / Family 2,500 / Skilled 2,400) Total 13,620 visas
18 March JSC "Prioritise Migration" (160,000 Quota) Visas > April should be over 50%
Now we're talkin' 20,000 Govt backed monthly visas in direct competition for dinkum Aussie Jobs
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/18/prioritise-skille...
Hottest Hotels #1 NSW 14,960 / Qld 7,400 / WA 3,920 / *NT 2,340 (*Expansion)
Mutant Uprising Portholes #1 *WA 66% / NSW 41% / NT 35% / Qld 32% (*Delayed Pickers / Mines )
Vic / Tassie just resourced all their pickers so intake was down > re: WA can then bump visa Quota
Of Interest is comparing 2019 free-flight to 2 x Fed Govt Control Arrivals 2020/21.
March 2019 - #1 China > NZ > UK > USA > India
March 2020 - #1 NZ > UK > India > *China > USA (*China Flight Ban in March)
March 2021 - #1 NZ > *India > China > UK > USA (*India's rise cut by Covid Flight Ban > May 15)
China > Oz - 2021- Jan 380 > Feb 1,090 > March 1,260
Crew can see that Oz will happily default arrivals to (#1 NZ < #2 China < #3 India )
Oz next intakes from all near nations - Vanuatu, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Pakistan, Hong Kong.
Plenty of Philippine passports getting flashed at tbb's GP > Vax / I.D. / Shots...like a carousel.
Aussie's Filipino brides cliche fits in with Oz Migrant Family Quotas (These teens like Oz & Oz Jobs)
JSC Choice for Hottest Mutant Jobs...Reads Post Covid recovery occupations for the Crew's families!
Reminder that 160,000 visas are directed to these "Govt assist [457] occupations".
tbb has heard that Govt are gonna give employers some handouts ..so these 'd be what for!
Also means these employers might get the jump on Aussies in these Trad Aussie Careers.
Just saying to move quick or miss out as these are longer term Family Migrants + English test is Gone.
Govt have instructed employers to "Lock in" these newbies for "long term trades." proper Aussies.
Govt's don't usually assist VISAS in proper Trades like these! Well not for a while anyway!
Crew can pick up on that...this is Govt backed competition (vs) Oz kids careers in a growth economy.
If crew or Families are into these trades then lock in quick or be steamrolled by the Govt Machine.
Pay to think of some fancy Jam Sandwiches as yer bread'n'butter gets devoured. (Crew know wot!)
tbb is saying to either Upskill or Diversify in readiness of Competition or get priced out!
Get ready for this...are you in the Hot Seat?
1. Chefs 2 Vets 3 Cafe 4 Restaurants 5 Seafarers 6 Civil Engineers 7 Electrical Engineers 8 Mechanics 9 Carpenters 10 Electricians 11 Hospitality 12 Health 13 Tradies 15 Agriculture 16 Manufacturing
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Migration...
“ We can colonise and destroy already existing cultures, commit boundless atrocities”
No one here thinks we can do that
Stop blaming yourself for your ancestors actions. I’ve married a German, but I wouldn’t for a second think she’s got anything to do the atrocities that occurred before she was born
Learn from past mistakes so they don’t happen again. Stop using them to green light new ones
Every country has its own skeletons in the closet and at this very moment is committing human rights offences, including (well, in particular) Australia.
There is no stopping the rise of China. The correct way to look at and approach this reality is to ask: How do we as a nation engage and interact with China moving forwards.
China-bashing, continuing to tear down and undermine the relationship, and moving to warfare-like footings on all fronts in a futile attempt to prevent the rise of China, are all detrimental to our long-term interests as a nation. The real enemy to Australia in all of this is blind US-following.
But this is what our current politicians are mindlessly doing, all driven by their own naivety, ignorance and fear. This is not in the interests of the people of Australia. Our politicians need to quickly reassess, rethink and modify their approach.
"Wow. I guess that then allows us to have pre emptive notions in regard to what may lay ahead in our imaginary assumptions of what another regime is supposedly definitely going to do ;)"
No pre-emptive notions required.
You just look at what is happening right now.
GSCO, I asked you in good faith a couple of times what we had to be "enthusiastic" about in terms of China becoming the dominant hegemon in the Western Pacific.
you said "lots" to be enthusiastic about, so I assume you have given it some thought.
Is there a reason you can't or won't share that, because I sure would like to hear it.
From tbb’s link
“remove the requirement for employers to advertise any occupations which are on the PMSOL or critical skills lists; and”
“remove the requirement for employers to advertise for all occupations classified as Skill Level 1 and 2 on the jobactive website.”
“with a view to expanding the number of occupations to better reflect the urgent skills shortages in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic recovery. The Department should give particular consideration to civil engineers, electrical engineers, motor mechanics, cooks, carpenters, electricians and other roles in the hospitality, health, trades, agriculture and manufacturing sectors.”
How good is Australia, we’re supposed to be an advanced nation and we can’t even find enough cooks. And still people think we’re on the right track with the right mob
As for the current China debate, although there are concerns with the CCP and a lot of what has been said here is true, the cynic in me would suggest that there is an election coming up and, you know, what ever it takes to get back in will do.
It’s not like we haven’t seen it all before, children overboard, muslim terrorists, African gangs. Nothing like a bit of fear and dread to get everyone riled up to vote
@freeride76
My experience of living in China is the only thing I didn't like about it was the pollution (but many nations experienced bad pollution when they developed, in particular the UK and US in the industrial revolution).
In most ways I found China to be a great place with a huge amount of variety, opportunity, and freedom (for all, including the Chinese). I found the Chinese people to be normal, friendly, down-to-earth, humble and accepting people just going about their daily lives of trying to earn a living and survive, much like the people of any nation, including us.
China is not a "communist" or "socialist" nation at all, but is a bizarre "hybrid" of a lot of historical, cultural, political, economic, etc, influences and flavours, many modern but many of which were developed thousands of years ago and are very hard for us to understand and put into context in our heads.
The people of China have a very surprising amount of freedom in their daily lives, that most people in the west either don't realise or won't accept or admit to or believe in their heads. They also have a surprising amount of economic freedom and free enterprise in their bizarre "hybrid" economy.
The China we see in the media, spewing out of the mouths of our idiot politicians, and written in provocative and sensationalist books (some of which are mentioned above) bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the reality on the ground in the country that's a short ~9hr plane flight away.
My experience is the Chinese government has the best interests of its people, and the global community, at heart. (This statement will probably have me crucified in here, and I don't care...). But of course Chia will go about things in the way that it sees best, which will be quite different to the US, and again quite hard for us in the west to understand and process in our heads.
One thing I particularly look forward to as China rises to power is I don't think anything will really change at all for us. The main mistake I think people are making is they look at extremely and provocatively negative things being said about daily life in Chinese society (most of which are ridiculously untrue and absurd) and then imagine in their heads what it would be like for Australia to become like that. So they are assuming China will "pick up" and drop all of this onto Australia. China is not going to just suddenly impose its laws, way of life, political system, society, etc, on us.
Having said that, however, I think there is a lot about Chinese society and their way of life that is better and smarter than the west (and there is a lot about our society and way of life that I think is better than China). So in the above paragraph, many positive things about China are being ignored.
Another thing I look forward to is some sanity being brought to the international stage by a new and unique (a very left-field) balancing power, to counteract the disaster that the US is. I'm completely disillusioned about the US and its track record of lies, self interest, destruction, and outright insanity, in its actions in this world. The US is fast becoming a completely failed nation, a laughing stock of the international community, and an embarrassment to humanity and thorn in its side.
I only just caught up with the last few (China) pages of this. Interesting, to say the least.
I'm surprised/dumbfounded that recent history - Nazism; Fascism; Stalin and the Gulags; Mao; etc etc - seems entirely forgotten or downplayed. The New Left, as witnessed during the last two years, actively welcomes and encourages authoritarian measures. Our own "Be Kind!" PM in NZ is certainly no exception.
I vote not to have Chinese rule in the South Pacific. And I will exercise my right to protest loudly against any policies leaning towards that; any appeasement from our government (actually happening at the moment, with our foreign minister being very gently with China).
So does this mean you support Aboriginal Australians to use force to take back from you the land you slept on last night?
@GSCO & JF
I believe the comments made in this article
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-29/china-warns-australia-over-old-wa...
this morning are very accurate and true, and our politicians need to listen to them:
> China has criticised Australian politicians for making remarks that "instigate confrontation"
> Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, called Australia's politicians the "real troublemakers" and declared Australia's hyping of a China threat "unethical".
> "As a country that has long benefited from cooperation with China, it is unethical for Australia to hype a 'China threat' theory, nor is the allegation consistent with facts," he said.
> "We advise individual Australian politicians to abandon the Cold War mentality, stop making irresponsible remarks and do more to benefit regional peace and stability,"
I firmly believe that Australia is the antagonist here, and is making a big mistake.
Our current politicians should be held to account for intentionally undermining and sabotaging our relationship with China. Doing this is not in our best interests. It is not in the best interests of the Australian people to get increasingly offside with China, which is simply and politely and respectfully asking and indeed recommending that our idiot politicians stop doing it.
Gsco, I think you are cherry picking your statements. China may not be a direct threat to Australia at the moment.... but they are a direct threat to Taiwan and the economic rights of all countries neighbouring South China Sea.
CCP uses its proxy the United Front to control and intimidate the chinese diaspora who dare critisise the CCPin australia.
CCP uses money and power to bribe and influence our politicians and policy to remain quiet and or silence those who critique CCP.
CCP uses the Confuscious Institute and its members to threaten and bully free speech on our university campuses
CCP regular undertakes cyber-activity to harm, disrupt and steal from our public and private insititutions
CCP uses economic coercion to bully Australia into submitting because it doesn’t like our attitude.
All of this threatens our sovereignty and democratic institutions. I don’t know how anyone can be ok with this.
The threat of war of which i think there is none and also do not see any political party promoting one despite an upcoming election is wrong to compare to previous examples e.g. iraq.
This time we have real skin in the game - and there is no incentive from our government to promote one particular given our economic reliance and the fact if China sneezed we would be wiped out. As I mentioned before I think the reverse is true. The Australia public was outraged (thats for you JF) of the above points being exposed through quality journalism and have dragged our political masters kicking and screaming to their current position - which is to say “enough is enough”
It also worth noting that many of those who have been severely impacted by CCP economic coercion have come our supporting Australia’s position.
@gsco
I respect the fact that your views are backed up by having lived in China, big plus there.
But some of the restrictions on the people in China are pretty big, they might have freedom in some ways, but freedom of knowledge/news of the world is limited.
Just look at the internet restrictions even search engines like google & Duck duck go are banned. (surprising Bing ban has been lifted)
Then pretty much all social media, most if not all world major news outlets, Wikipedia, YouTube,(even Youtube kids) Vimeo even music website like Bandcamp, even Netflix is banned.
I expect this list is only the tip of the iceberg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_mainland_China
In regard to the South China Sea dispute
Personally i think the world should make an ideological stance and change the name of the South china sea, to the South East Asian sea.
For perspective.
wow, so Chinese CCP has the best interests "of its people, and the global community, at heart".
That sounds an incredibly naive statement of trust in a one party totalitarian state.
But I guess we'll see how it pans out in the next 10-20-30 years.
As far as what we have to be enthusiastic about.
I read your long post with interest GSCO, and the only concrete thing I could come up with there, is that you are enthusiastic that America is going down, relative to China and you would rather have China as the dominant power in our region.
Is that an unfair assessment of your position?
What you look forwards to is nothing really changing for us, but that's materially untrue.
China is showing it will have zero hesitation to impose economic coercion on us if we don't toe the CCP line.
They have been explicit in this.
That is a big change.
Perhaps an examination of why so many Chinese emigrate to Western nations and why so few Westerners (or anyone else) emigrate to China might be appropriate? Western nations' refugee intake v China's refugee intake if we're talking human rights abuses? Western nations' cultural diversity v China's cultural diversity?
Pretty sure our correspondents formed views are akin to Stockholm Syndrome.
China’s coercive and exploitative behaviour on the world stage is a proven fact and not limited to Australia. It routinely flouts international norms and rulings.
Also gsco, I think most commenters here are explicit that their beef is with the CCP, not with ‘Chinese’ people.
"I will not allow anyone to walk through my mind with their dirty feet"
Mahatma Gandhi
I skimmed through ya vid snuffed out smurf, and watched a minute or two, and all I've got is... sigh...
seriously wtf are you suggesting?
actually, don't answer that, your one track mind is so one track and predictable it's obvious and tiresome
are you really that incapable of talking about the bigger picture without being so nit picky and pathetic?
are you really that incapable of holding more than two competing ideas in your head?
is it ideological?
a processing problem? ...bandwidth issue?
are you of chinese descent?
or you're just passionate?
serious questions
as someone said further up the page, australian people don't want war, and Im pretty sure the majority of chinese people don't want war either...
what most australians want is a disengagement with the biggest bully in town. which is slowly but surely happening...
and what is interesting about this process is, the chinese government has made all sorts of subtle but obvious threats about what will happen if australia backs away. that minister in oz is not even subtle, he basically said, be careful when we're in charge we'll be coming after the dissidents...
there's no not subtlety about taiwan either...
australia has every right to back away from an unhealthy relastionship, not least because we are following the rules, whilst china continues to flat out flout them and manipulate the game at every opportunity. it's how china reacts to this backing away that will determine the oz / china relationship into the future
the ball is 100% in their court
Dual citizenship should be disallowed. It serves no benefit to Australia.
You must go clean your filthy trotters Sippie cup.Don't skim through this.
Sad, sad, snuffy - you really should seek help.
A couple of legends staying true to the path
Ha ha that video is so Aussie, tad Aussie surfer bogan....he still rips though and she sure isn't high maintenance.
Dont know about the order though, fishing then surfing, not great going surfing with fishy hands, i prefer surf then fish, much safer.
Thought it was Fraser Island at first with the Dingos and Alvey reels, that section with the Roo and Dingo was cool.
I spent a lot of time at Fraser with Dingo's, some of them were pretty tame and you would get to know each one like a normal dog each had a different personality, use to be this alcoholic mechanic there that never closed his doors and the dingos would just wander in and out of his home as they liked. (they have fences now though stopping dingos coming into communities)
Cool Vid... some of the local rocks can get a bit crowded for a fish but they have found a way around that! Be a decent swim back with a big Jew!
Love it , just getting off the beach after working the tide to the top , stayed a bit longer for the change of tide in case there was a jewy lurking around all the mullet that were laid up for the night in the drainy sections of the gutters . No luck there but 3 fat bream and a nice shovelly on fresh mullet strips. tight lines.
I put 2 hrs in this morning up to and beyond the 5am. low.
bouncing plastics, hardbodies.
nothing but soaking wet in the squalls and an undersized tailor.
The joys of fishing FR, next time
A hot cuppa must have gone down well after that
Mankinds greatest invention is the thermos.
Zen would say its the doggy poop bag, AKA hand warmer, haha
That was a legendary video Blowin.
Can surf too, both of them rip.
Wish I liked eating fish more. Was brought up by a fisherman, got all the skills in the memory bank, really enjoy the experience, just don’t care for them as food much. My dad would eat anything that came out of the sea, just loved it. I didn’t get that gene.
Liked that they recognise that even living in the city you can be alive to nature. Just got to keep your eyes open.
I really enjoy the whole act of both Mick and Tahlija. Dedicated to their passions and they seem to have eradicated a lot of the superfluous shit out of their lives. Youve got to admire anyone who goes all in on the things they love. Generous, friendly and down to Earth crew. They sure can surf.
I put out a couple of hours before sunrise in the Sea Wok yesterday to take advantage of the low wind and warm water. Launch over the beach. Get out there before every clown starts doing bog laps in their $100K boats. Absolute pleasure and a privilege to be cruising the 10 odd kms to a favourite little patch of reef with the only light being that of the full moon. Catching livies before the first hint of light. Had the first baits out as the first faint hint of light in the East for a double hook up. Landed one nice tuna but the other got sharked. Another double hookup 5 minutes later but lost both to sharks again. Watched the sun come up and enjoyed a hot serve of caffeine from Freeride’s favourite invention. Other boats started to appear and the bite was over so I pulled the pin. Food in the larder, memories in the bank and the hunting instinct satisfied. Enjoy the feeling of having the world to yourself and the sense of independence being at sea alone. What’s not to love about fishing?
got to admit, without a single pelagic hookup this year, that shot makes me a bit green with envy.
missed a trip down to Iluka wall when the tuna were red hot. Haven't had a single hit.
Sounds like there’s been a fair bit of pelagic action down on the lower mid North coast up until recently at least. Season ain’t over yet. Get them on their way back North. Water was 23 in close here yesterday.
Here’s a book I recommend Freeride. Order it at your local library and they’ll get it in for free. Interesting section on making fish “hams” by curing the fish amongst other sections on how to utilise more of the animal than just the fillets. Worth a gratis perusal.
Nice catch Blowy you hunter gatherer you.
Nice longy Blowin. How good is pelagic action in a tinny. Great book there too - a worthy resource
yeah, I'll have a look.
what doesn't get eaten gets fed to the chooks or buried in the garden.
Discovered kookaburras love fish frames too.
Anyone eaten tailor roe/milt?
If it's anything like mullet roe it'll be delicious.
Herring roe is good
FR - I've had fresh tailor roe fried up after a morning session and it was definitely not to my palate - had a grainy, gritty almost sandy texture and was overly strong. Tried it smoked too and it just made the texture and flavour worse.
I go to Fraser every year and the milt harvesters are referred to as "The Guzzlers". I'm ok with a nice plump white oyster but def not going there when the thing has eyes that peer into my soul.
Processed (dried and or smoked) mullet roe (bottarga/karasumi) is meant to be unreal shaved over pasta like an aged parmesan but i'm yet to stump up the cash for some (>$30/100g) to confirm! https://www.thetruffleman.com.au/bottarga-smoked/
cheers mate, when I was in Alaska used to have a soup with salmon roe in it, very rich but edible.
Yeah I know some mullet milt freaks , having worked in the industry and literally been knee deep in the stuff when sorting nets on a big beach haul , I'll give it a miss. Whats worse is hosing your tray back 4wd off after it gets caked in the stuff after transporting them and gets mixed with sand and dries up on a sunny day.
I don't mind the roe smoked , not something I'd pay for though .But I was lucky enough to be able to take a big female home after work if I wanted so price wasn't a concern. Some of the big females are just freaky as far as how big and fat they are compared to the males.
"I was lucky enough to be able to take a big female home after work if I wanted "
The things we do in our youth.
"Some of the big females are just freaky"
Tell me about it.
haha.. love your work AndyM
I eat that sort of stuff all the time as in it's a regular part of my diet. I love it- roe and milts from various fish. We also eat fish organs such as liver. Angler fish liver is called Ankimo and is called Japanese Foi gras. It's delicious on its own or on sushi or sauteed in a little butter. Also we have something here called 'Shirako', you can google it if you like but I'd advise eating it before you know what it is. Purists eat it lightly poached with a little ponzu sauce. I like it as tempura or grilled.
Not much of a fish goes to waste in Japan.
Zen. There’s so many places to go with that last post that I’m not even gunna touch it. For fear of getting in a sticky situation of course
The "I can't believe it's not politics" thread.