Let's go back to the start.

The theme is definitely NOT slavery and its evils.

It's about the politics of tariffs and how Donald Trump uses them, or tries to use them, for political reasons.

He wants to turn Australia away from China. Albanese has no interest in slavery; he must know what goes on within China, and he still can't get enough of the country. He just bleated something about ‘ideology’.

So, forget slavery. Trump is, rightly, concerned about the huge advantage China has over the West because of low labour costs compared with the West's.

I don't think that Donald Trump is particularly concerned about what workers in China are paid or not paid; enslaved or not. He is interested in American workers, as he should be. But, most of all, he wants the help of Australia and other Western countries to put more effort into fighting the grey war, started by China, and fought against us by China via trade.

If we don't lift our game, we will be punished with tariffs.

Now, if anyone feels bullied by that, tough titty, we deserve it. We are not pulling our weight.

Our dependence on China is ridiculous.

As well as becoming self-sufficient, we have lots of other countries to trade with. In the region:

Japan
Indian
Bangladesh
Philippines
Vietnam
South Korea

Further afield:

Most of Europe
Canada
America itself.

It is batshite crazy to be so dependent on China, a Communist centralised economy, and the biggest, the only really, threat to peace in our region.

We need America more than it needs us. We don't need Communist China; we have most of the rest of the world to get what we can't, or won't in the case of the Albanese government, do for ourselves.

mhaze,
'As of early June 2026, China is threatening to apply a 55% tariff on Australian beef imports THAT EXCEED A 205,000-TONNE QUOTA'

So, no tariff on the first 205,000 tonnes of beef you moron.

ttbn's completely delusional,

He thinks we need the big bad tough United States and that they can beat China militarily but he hasn't gotten the memo when they couldn't beat Iran and couldn't even beat the Houthis couldn't beat the Vietnamese and their modern weapons are now overpriced obsolete junk.

I might own a couple dell computers, but beyond that I don't need much from America.
China is now better at high value items.
Take away my cheap Chinese products, and your asking for a fight though.

Chinese wages aren't too high for China, it's that Chinese wages are too low for America and western countries to compete..
We need $50 a hour wages to pay for houses that now cost a million bucks.

"Chinese wages aren't too high for China,"

The zero wages that the Uighurs earn are never too high.
The wealth the CCP earn from those workers is always too high.

But heh, we can solve that problem by unionising the slaves. What a bozo.

It's not a matter of how “high"Chinese wages are, it is how low they are that is the worry for Western countries.

In Australian dollars, the average for Chinese workers is $26k-$38k.

In Australia it is $107k.

In America it is $90k.

53 other countries are subject to the tariff threat for failing “to impose and effectively enforce a forced labour import prohibition".

America says that it doesn't want its workforce competing in a global “unlevel” playing field”.

Albanese and his mate Taylor have no such concern about the Australian workforce. The uniparty cooperation has kicked in. Let's stand against our greatest ally together!

Albanese is squealing about Australia's “robust, comprehensive and world-leading legislation addressing forced labour and modern slavery”.

This legislation is affecting the Communists, how?

They never like to compare, comparable countries, CHINA with INDIA, both with populations over one billion people. The average salary in China $20,000 USD p/a in India its $4650 USD p/a. India has a rudimentary pension scheme, where as China provides a very good universal pension. Same applies to education, housing and health care. Caulk and Cheese!

BTW, Uighur workers are paid wages in China, along with pensions and other benefits.