Yeah but we import resources from overseas, and we have Australian producers exporting to overseas as well. We are an open economy, not a closed one.

Your argument makes zero sense from an economics perspective.

The oligopoly of Coles and Woolworths is valid, but it is a separate issue.

More consumers and less producers = higher revenue for producers.

This is an economics question, not an engineering one.

Sustainability is an issue outside of economics. What happens if you cut the supply chain for imports? What happens if we lose our fuel supply and we can't get from producers to consumers?

We source a lot of food, medicine and oil through South East Asia. What happens if those shipping lanes close for an extended period for whatever reason?

Moving away from farming to oil, Australia has closed a lot of it's refineries which has also increased fuel prices (more consumers, less producers = higher revenue).

However we have no reserves and if Singapore was to have an issue, we could run dry over an extended period. Australia doesn't have the logistics to suddenly cover the short fall in fuel supply. We don't have the ships or the trucks anymore.

Economics is numbers, not how one things gets from one place to another and at what cost. What happens if A to B is unviable?

There is more than enough food supply to feed the world a number of times over.

If our oil supply cut off from once source, then we would buy it from another source.

Oil prices are set by the world market - whether we have refineries here or not is completely irrelevant. They will charge whatever the world price is.

Your premise is incorrect.

If A to B is unviable, then we move from A to C, A to D, A to E, etc etc.

I disagree, demand grows faster than production and there have been several key areas where production has near halted, namely Zimbabwe (the fruit bowl of Africa).

With increased food production you increase water supply. Where are you getting your numbers for this stuff?

As for oil, supply isn't like a tap. If our supply was suddenly cut how long would it last? A week? 2 weeks? What happens if something blows up in the south china sea and the south east asia supply route is impaired? There is lee time between moving from A-B to A-C.

Defence WHite Paper 2016: Supply Shortages

I trust the source is "unbiased" enough to be considered.

I'm not some conspiracy theorist that we'll go back to the stone age, but the real affects of cutting supply, even for a week are real given our reserves are currently inadequate. It is a concern to me that we are over-reliant on imports.

Climate Change will happen

After the human race is extinct, its not our children, or our children's children

But, we're all in contempt of each other :lol:

So, why worry? All there is... is now?

I'd like to know where moderate Islam stops and radical Islam starts. A number of "radical" principles that Isis and extremists enforce are enforced as law in some Muslim countries.

America is the biggest terrorist state in the world and is a 3rd world country masquerading as a 1st world state.

U.o : afl is a brilliant sport

They've continued with Cold War realpolitik after the Cold War finished. I blame the Japanese for radicalising the Americans.

I think it is. Very athletic. You have to be good with your hands and feet and very physical.

I should correct myself. Footy is a brillant sport. The afl organization is shit. Cant stand head quarters

I don't know how skilful a sport can be when you can bring in foreigners aged in their 20s who have never played the sport, and they can, within a year or 2, be skilful enough to play at the elite level...

Compare it to rugby where a few of the 'roles' players play are catch the ball and run in a straight line until tackled.

I think AFL is a solid combination of athleticism, strength and hand/foot skills.

Its something that always has to be considered. But only in the context of diversifying your suppliers, not trying to be self-reliant.

If we tried to change our economy so that we wouldn't depend on imports, we'd be subsidising firms (corporate welfare) and tripling/quadrupling the cost of many items which would become instantly more expensive.

The basic economic principle of specialisation, via globalisation, is what has brought the world its wealth since WW2.

Food technologies (especially GMOs) have kept production ahead of demand. If you read your history there has constantly been warnings about food supply, but it never comes to fruition.

The world has a MASSIVE latent capacity to produce food. Using the Zimbabwe example, as soon as world prices start to creep up, food production becomes more economic, and more farmer switch production to these food crops.

No famine in the modern era has been caused by a lack of food production. The cause is invariably incompetent, and corrupt govt, and/or deliberate action by govt to punish a group of people.

Lewis Hamilton is overrated and his name should never be used in the same sentence as that Formula 1 legend he idolises, for it is tuly blasphemy. That Formula 1 legend he idolises got to the top in Formula 1 after showing his brilliance in cars that were in no position to be leading races/ winning races/ contesting the Championship- before joining the same team as the #1 driver at the time and beating him as well.

Lewis had a paid ride to the top with McLaren since he was THIRTEEN. As long as he's driving one of the best cars in the field, he's a contender. Different story once Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren or whoever else make up ground on Mercedes but. I also get the impression Lewis enjoys being a celebrity first and foremost, and that being a highly paid Formula 1 star is just the means to that end. I can't wait until another black driver makes it into Formula 1 and doesn't carry on the way Lewis (or Vettel for that matter) does when things don't go their way so that all the "OMG people hate Lewis cause they're RAAAAAAACIST!" brigade can sit the fuck down and shut up.

Daniel Riccardo is what you want a Gen Y sportsman to be- affable, friendly and clearly loving what he does. This is, of course, a completely unbiased opinion of a driver who happens to be a fellow countryman of mine!


Edited by Captain Haddock: 21/6/2016 10:47:35 AM

I don't know enough about rugby union or league (being from Adelaide originally) to have an opinion. But I assume that there is more to it than that.

Don't you think it says something about aussie rules though?

It would be like Jarrod Hayne deciding to play soccer, and within 2 years competing in the Champions League!

With oil and what not, the most reliable suppliers all have to use the same shipping lanes to get here (within a reasonable period). In Brisbane we do refine oil. I worked on a Jet Fuel pipeline which supplies jet fuel directly from the refinery to the Brisbane Airport. It was essentially what was required to keep the refinery viable long term. Even that refinery is specialised. It refines sweeter high performance fuels and creates lubricants and 'dirty ship fuel' with the bi-products. If our fuel supply was cut for whatever reason, say China going ballistic in the South China Sea, we have no reserves or capacity to produce our own. Alternative suppliers using alternative shipping routes would take months to get things back to normal.

Agree with the cost for keeping things on shore, but aren't we doing it anyway with Holden/Ford/Toyota re. corporate welfare? I guess we can thank our good old unions for pricing ourselves out of producing our own goods :lol:

Latent capacity or not short term demand cannot be met. Cut off oil for two weeks and most urban supermarkets would run out of everything within a few days. We will never be able to meet 'emergency demands' when consumers outnumber producers significantly. Look what happens every time theres a major weather event. Sure it's short term, but imagine if it was country wide.

I think this phenomenon is more likely due to the tiny talent pool available to them. I do agree compared to football, the "athleticism vs skill" is more biased towards athleticism in AFL though.

There is, but the role of a forward in rugby is to typically catch the ball and make as many metres as possible. They are the big blokes who are in the team to gain metres with strength, not through kicking, ball skills or guile.

I assume your reference is to Mason Cox at Collingwood? He's a key position player and very athletic which makes his transition easier. I think his natural athleticism is making him look a lot better than he is. However, put him in Collingwood's midfield and he'd be lost. He doesn't have the stamina or agility to play there. He's a target man. His job is to catch the ball and kick it through the posts. Still requires a shit load more athleticism than a forward in rugby.

You can't say someone like Patrick Dangerfield or Eddie Betts isn't an incredibly talented person?

His foot skills are pretty average (warning: I may be a little bit jaded crows fan :lol:)

My ex Mrs. was from Adelaide so I've always followed the Crows.

My new Mrs. supports the Cats. What a conundrum, I'm forced to cheer for that judas prick when the Cats come to QLD :lol:

Its not really unions - we are an isolated country, so transportation costs will always kill us.

Agreed 100% re car industry - sad that it is closing down, but it is better that govt isn't throwing good money after bad any more. We aren't a large scale manufacturing nation, so we shouldn't try to be.

I get what you are saying re oil supply, but it is just unrealistic - China is not capable of cutting of all the shipping lanes to Australia, and they wouldn't want to anyway.

The risks you point out are just the nature of living in a globalised world. Every country has this risk for one industry or another.

We aren't able to insulate ourselves against this risk without severely shrinking our economy.

Yeah of course, I am stirring a bit too... I actually love my Aussie Rules as well. But it is a bit disconcerting that a foreigner can play the game at the elite level so easily!

I always watched Andrew McLeod as a youngster, thinking that he would be such a good Socceroo!

Apparently Gavin Wanganeen played a bit of soccer too, another guy who would have been great.

Edited by AzzaMarch: 21/6/2016 11:28:16 AM

[-x be nice.

As I said, I think it's natural athleticism and many skills between basketball and AFL are transferrable i.e. jumping, catching etc. When he plays against decent defenders I think he'll have trouble. He good games have come against sides like Brisbane.

Look at Falou and Hunt, they were not that great at AFL.

2010 Australian Sudoku Champion, John Eales

Nothing will come of the Chinese games. I highly doubt the Chinese will give a shit. It is simply a way to boost the egos of the Afl hierarchy and will allow them to call Aussie rules an international game.

When you have the president pushing for the investment of billions of dollars into football in China, what chance does the Afl have?

Totally agree about religion. I'd love to be able to see 50/100 years into the future and see how religion affects society in that time.

from what I recall the percentage of people who don't indentify with a religion is growing. But these people seem to be coming from Christian backgrounds while Islam seems to intensify its hold on people.

With Islam being the religion of "peace" at what point do the suicide bombings stop and Islamic countries start to get their shit together.

When we think of Islamic "trouble" it's normally just about Syria, Iraq,

but Yemen, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Niger, Sudan, Somalia, Central African Republic. Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Eritrea, Tunisia, all have serious Islamic groups operating and killing people. And I'm sure I've forgotten countries.

When does it stop?

Fillet O'Fish burgers are delicious.

I don't see anything offensive about what eddie and tge triple m or the 3aw guys said as offensive. Of course i know ill get the "yeah your a white male of course you don't get it". I do understand that their is tension between the triple m guys and wilson which probably contributed to her offence which i find more disconcerning as she was actually present when the 3aw guys almost said the exact same thing. HOWEVER eddies attitude afterwards was pretty pathetic.

I am just a little over all these little things being picked apart there is surely got to be a point when people are allowed to joke about things, personally in a comedic sense and knowing your audience i don't think there should ever be a line. All things permitted.

In eddies situation there may have been malice as there has been issue with wilson in the past, maybe he should hold his tongue but are we getting to the point (knowing the following situation is vastly different) where a male and a female friend cannot joke about killing, rape, holocaust, beer, sexual orientation etc without being accused of potentially carry out these things... i know my group of friends would be stuffed. (My closest friends would almost all be 25-35 year old females also)