Blow the Truth

Senator Jacqui Lambi Trade with China Senate Speech 2020: Do you know what the Chinese ambassador did when our government called for an inquiry into the coronavirus? He threatened us. He said that if Australia pushes too hard on this inquiry idea China will stop buying our meat and drinking our wine. He told us that international students would think twice about coming here to study, that the tourists would stop coming. And he knew he could make those sorts of threats. Why? Because he knew our economic dependence on China is like a vein, and if they turn it off the heart of our economy stops beating. For far too long we've let the mantra of free trade blind us to the fact that we are selling our country right from under our very own feet. We've fallen into this false sense of security that whenever we need something we'll always be able to buy it from somewhere else. But our supply chains are so fragile, and this crisis has definitely shown us that those supply chains brea...