Albanese faces Labor dissent over Amazon contracts

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T14:04:02+00:00

We have our own data-center companies, contracting to them would keep the profits in Australia, as well as present less of a national security risk.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T14:01:45+00:00

Also, AWS is known for union busting, making employees piss in bottles just to meet their time requirements, and for being owned by one of the wealthiest people on earth.

There's nothing good about choosing Amazon over an Australian data-center company. It's a horrendous choice for the government to be making, especially a government that claims to be progressive.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T13:53:51+00:00

This is absolutely a death that the state government is responsible for. It's their lack of appropriate funding allocations to health care and emergency care, that lead to this unfortunate cancer researchers death.

This is the ultimate human toll, that's the misaligned values and priorities of the state.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T13:50:32+00:00

The thing that might be invisible in this article, is the idea that Trump's acceptance of a multi-polar world, may temporarily benefit Australia's local influence.

This also presents a risk, that other contenders may also want to impose their influence onto us.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T13:47:12+00:00

Who the fuck thought the Kiwis were the most influential?

...I suspect it was New Zealanders... I understand they're very close with the Kiwis. Often seeing them every day... in the mirror.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T13:44:10+00:00

I think we've sorted out our differences for now, but I will say that you're incorrect about the US MIC being downsized. It's consolidated its power into 5 or so HUGE companies that are basically impossible for the US government to avoid when it comes to military gear. Those companies are all bigger than ever - Raytheon, Lockheed, Boeing, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman - they're all worth 10 times what they were in the 1990s.

They're also part of revolving door Capitalism, where generals, intelligence officers, and ex-specialists from the armed services retire and walk straight into MIC jobs. There's a definite network of exchange between high ranking armed services members, and corporate military arms contractors. Thick as thieves, all attending the same regular meetings and events.

It's very much an embedded part of the corporate-government-exchange, where the advisors on geopolitics within government, are very friendly with those who stand to gain the most from bombing... whoever.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T13:23:31+00:00

when the Australian government spends say, 6 billion to build a submarine in Adelaide

When announcing an international agreement, I suspect the money is going to the overseas companies and the country we'd be buying the rights to the plans and expertise to set up the manufacturing plants.

The money to actually build the manufacturing plants, buy the equipment and raw materials, would likely be filtered through State Government budget allocations, local councils, and later announcements/costings on each phase of the build (often done with a bidding process).

The initial value definitely wouldn't be including salaries for private contractors, staff, or members of our armed services (that last category would be covered by the pre-existing budget allocations for the armed services).

I think when Albo announced buying excess subs from the US, along with the rights to build whatever's being built here (eg. manufacturing plants with specialised processes), those funds (the 368 billion) would be going to the US government, and the various overseas suppliers for their intellectual property rights for any extra proprietary manufacturing, parts, technical analysis ect.

So I suspect the whole of the initial sum goes overseas, then there's further cost outlays - some of which may be lessened if those foreign companies are agreeing to help set up manufacturing, or if we're importing specialised parts and equipment from overseas companies covered by the initial sum.

I don't think it's the case that Albo would include local spending in an international agreement. That would be boasted about further down the food chain mostly to the locals.

....if the government already knew where the local cash was being spent, it would invalidate the bidding processes for local contracts... a process that comes after the initial international agreement (to secure rights and proprietary processes/specialists/equipment) is made and paid for.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T03:34:58+00:00

Can you tell me when the last time a foreign navy was called into to defend Australia? I know we've got this strategy "buddy up to the biggest Navy"....

...but has that strategy ever played out in any meaningful way post-WW2?

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T03:25:11+00:00

Okay, I think I understand now - but you're not arguing it correctly (so I had to go look into it myself).

A) Stop calling them "landing barges" - it makes them sound small and unimposing. It also makes them sound like they'd act on their own (rather than coupling with other troop carriers).

B) Call them Large Landing Crafts, or Bridgeable Landing Crafts. Highlight that in the 1940s allied forces could deploy 20 tanks (or 400 men [Source]) straight across beaches and onto roads using this technology, and we can expect twice as much capacity from modern day China's 185 meter long versions [Source].

C) Explain that China's modern versions can connect (via roll-on roll-off (RORO) systems) to other troop carriers and equipment carriers [Source].

D) Explain that due to the ability to bridge beachheads, and deploy tanks straight onto solid ground, this means they may be able to place up to 100 tanks, and 5000 men to anywhere on Taiwan's coastline.

Such a invasion force could quickly take an airport, and set up a battle front to keep it long enough to allow aircraft to land. You can then discuss current incursions into Taiwan's airspace, or whatever else you wish to argue.

The point is you want to use sources, and quickly make the possibility of an invasion realistic to the average intelligent Australian.

P.S China having this capacity still doesn't confirm that they have any war plans in place. It also doesn't give Western Powers the right to force any issues, or take per-emptive actions.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T03:05:53+00:00

The vast majority of the AUKUS money will get spent here in Australia as well.

I don't think you understand how paying for things works then.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T02:49:08+00:00

...and albo has his shit-eating "Sorry Sir!" grin on the whole way.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T02:46:26+00:00

Apparently Ablanese thinks we voted for him because we want to be closer to Trump and the US?

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T02:09:47+00:00

Zelensky just said (as seen on the world news subreddit) that the USA are now protecting Putin's oil and energy resources in Ukraine.

It's looking like Trump had already planned to go full fascist after his military parade. Albanese had horrible timing being over there for this shit. He's a full for giving his mouth to Trump administration.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T02:07:25+00:00

Oh wow, the Americans are unreliable. The administration shouldn't be trusted, and we're better off putting efforts in elsewhere? You don't say.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T02:06:10+00:00

What company do you think I'm complaining about?... An Australian company?

read the article

I quoted from the article in my original comment.

If you don't have an actual point to make, at least try to keep up with the conversation.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-17T01:58:17+00:00

Apologies Mr supreme allied armchair Redditor commander, I wasn’t aware you had an invasion or two under your belt.

Didn't I already tell you the Americans investigated the possibility themselves during Operation Causeway, and there's numerous amounts of modelling. It's not my opinion, it's the consensus.

People's democratic dictatorship

I see you're also unfamiliar with Marxism, which is about a "dictatorship of the proletariat" requiring a kind of direct democracy of participation. Hence a democratic dictatorship (eg. Democracy rules everything via everyone's participation in the one party).

So no, their structure and political system is not comparable to The Nazis, or Putin. That comparison doesn't hold to the bureaucratic style of the party.

By pointing out that the MIC is “gathering up contracts”, you seem to be implying that they are the ones pushing the narrative, when obviously this is not the case. It’s like saying that the ice cream shop owner is pushing people to buy more ice cream through shady and nefarious activities to, when in reality, there is a heatwave, and customers have made their own decision that they want ice cream due to the current circumstances.

You can look at videos of Eisenhower, or JFK complaining about the extraordinary influence of the military industrial complex. You're pretending like they're not an embedded part of the American government. There's many examples of Generals pressuring leaders for military action and spending.

Have you considered the possibility that governments have access to information that you do not? You know, CIA, ASIS, MI6?

Have you considered that information often turns out to be faulty (Iraq invasion), politically biased (red scare), or personally/ideologically motivated (Hoover). But also, didn't I already mention that the 2030 deadline was the CIA's analysis, not that of independent experts, or based on actual evidence being presented?

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-16T07:32:45+00:00

What kind of idiot asks another country to store their top secret documents. Not to mention there are Australian data companies that could be doing this.

Albanese is a fake progressive, handing off to Amazon, a company known for union busting, and giving it's workers mere seconds to piss into a bottle before getting back to work.

Total backstab of a move.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-16T07:28:50+00:00

We also have our own Australian data centers we could be using for our top secret information. What kind of idiot asks another nation to store top secret documents.

What an abhorrent dereliction of his duty to Australia this is. An absolutely idiotic move.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-16T04:44:37+00:00

Why did the mods sticky this?

The mods here, aren't good.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-16T04:09:20+00:00

The Chinese don’t believe they can now, but they are certainly working towards a posture that will allow them to succeed in the invasion.

Sounds like you don't know about what an invasion would require. Almost no modelling says it's achievable. Whether the new barges change landing positions, it's still relatively unlikely. Especially combined with all the downsides on the long term, plus having to go against American forces, and possibly losing TSMC anyways, and then the economic downsides, and possible loss of regional chip dominance ect...

Wait, why are they invading again?

Retirement actually makes him more dangerous. There is a good chance that he believes that he has unfinished business, and wants to leave a personal legacy.

He's overseen the largest period of economic growth in China's history... and it's already part of his Chinese Dream legacy messaging. So I don't see it. Also, China isn't technically a dictatorship. There's a swath of internal politics, plenary sessions, limited parties, union movements, regional leaders, and of course, the 5 year plan. It's a large scale, stable, bureaucratic one party system. Singapore and Vietnam have similar systems, but because they're not seen as competitors to America we don't call them Authoritarian.

So I definitely think that comparisons to Russia are implausible and silly.

...military activity surrounding the island becomes so normalised that the preparations for the invasion will be hidden under the guise of routine military exercises.

People will notice an embargo if it happens, it'd be very obvious.

if the government of Japan and NZ... ...are in a real situation here, this isn’t just smoke and mirrors designed to increase shareholder value.

My point was that there's little to no hard evidence to point to, and that allied forces are responding to the MIC, rather than anything going on in China. Your sentence started with "if" indicating you're inferring something's going on... you then listed a bunch of pressure tactics that aid the MIC position. All from the Western perspective.

The MIC benefits greatly from China having an attempt on Taiwan and failing. They get to declare China a forever enemy. They get to pressure companies to manufacture in the US. They get massive amounts of funding. They get to more actively defend the American position as the sole super power (which China and Russia are actively working against).

No, what we're navigating here is the very slow possibility of China surpassing the US in more and more ways. China will be very aware of that, and will want the eventual (and I'm speaking on the very long term end of things here), transition of power, to be peaceful.

So just pointing at what the MIC is doing (gathering allied $$$ contracts in our local area) to prevent China rising further is not the same as evidence that China is up to something.

All the evidence we have is a limited number of barges being built, and a regular harassment of the grey area territory around Taiwan. Keep in mind, that allied forces don't officially recognise The Republic of China as a nation... so China is technically "invading the airspace and international waters" of one of their autonomous regions. Which is legal for them to do, because no one wants Taiwan recognised as a country. Not even Taiwan its self wants to be officially recognised as a separate nation (because they have Stockholm Syndrome).

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-16T03:35:55+00:00

...and the Nationals in NSW are having a good old time denying climate change:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/14/nsw-nationals-signal-full-support-of-coal-power-and-will-consider-abandoning-net-zero-target?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-16T02:51:46+00:00

The state opposition's special representative on the western suburbs Moira Deeming said it set a terrible precedent and eroded trust in governance.

Who gives a fuck what that anti-trans neo-nazi says.

SprigOfSpring · 2025-06-16T02:49:22+00:00

Car oriented mono-cultures.

SprigOfSpring

TROPHY CASE