The Forum > Article Comments > China’s stranglehold over PNG and South Pacific trade a crisis for Australia > Comments
China’s stranglehold over PNG and South Pacific trade a crisis for Australia : Comments
By Jeffrey Wall, published 8/6/2021Australia has, via the Pacific Step Up program, made very little difference. The simple truth is that China's domination of these key sectors has not slowed at all.
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Australia's response to the shenanigans of both PNG is unquestionably "wholly inadequate". Australian governments and greedy companies have been inadequate ever since ASIO began warning both about the dangers of dealing with Communist China eleven years ago.
Fancy even having to talk about Australia in any context that includes Communism!
Fishing? Australia has the third largest fishing zone in the world. But we have the LOWEST fish harvest - 1/30th of the global average. The management of our fisheries is the most expensive, restrictive and the least productive in the world.
On the GB reef, for instance, only 9kg/square km is harvested. The WRI says that a well-managed reef could sustain 15,000kg/square km.
In the Coral Sea, Australia's catch is less than 11,000 tons, while PNG takes 250,000 tons from the same area, certified as sustainable.
What we catch is canned in Thailand, and we IMPORT up to 90,000 tons of fish annually.
It costs us $250,000 million a year to import canned tuna our ever-so-stupid government will not allow our fisherman to catch.
Far from doing anything to loosen the Communist "stranglehold", the Morrison government is enabling it.