53
votes
Accepted
Why did China target Australia for economic sanctions?
It's because they previously saw Australia as a weak link in the Western democratic alliance, and are not happy that they are now firmly siding with the U.S. and other Five Eyes.
Australia has long ...
- 1,966
48
votes
Accepted
Why should public servants be apolitical?
This topic is examined at quite some length in Ontario Law Reform Commission, Report on Political Activity, Public Comment and Disclosure by Crown Employees (1986) (cited by
Mcmanus v Scott-Charlton ...
- 4,366
43
votes
What international relations is Australia missing out on by being a constitutional monarchy?
Sorry, I think you are out of luck here.
NATO and EU are open to (constitutional) monarchies, for example Belgium is a member of both. The EU is restricted to democracies, and while there are no ...
- 115k
35
votes
Why should public servants be apolitical?
The core concept here is procedural fairness—or rather, the appearance of procedural fairness.
Procedural fairness involves whether impartial and open procedures are used when decisions affecting the ...
- 1,310
29
votes
Why was Australia willing to pay $3.0 B/unit for the French diesel-electric submarines?
I don't have all the accounting details, but one reason supposedly was that 60% of the money was earmarked to go to the local Australian suppliers.
Unlike many of the other examples you gave, which ...
- 145k
19
votes
Why are other countries reacting negatively to Australia's decision to deploy nuclear submarines?
US nuclear-powered submarines use highly-enriched uranium (HEU) as their power source. (The UK ones also use HEU, sourced from the US, but processed locally into cores.) So, critics say/claim HEU-...
- 145k
18
votes
Why did China target Australia for economic sanctions?
According to a piece on The Conversation, "China used anti-dumping rules against us because what goes around comes around":
Australia was among the first wave of countries to adopt anti-...
- 15k
18
votes
Accepted
What is "quantum" and why is it "incredibly important for Australia's defense", or for any advanced country's defense for that matter?
There isn't much detail available yet, but Morrison appears to be referring to 'quantum' as one of the advanced capabilities detailed in the joint leaders' statement back in September 2021, when the ...
CDJB♦
- 105k
16
votes
Why does Australia export so much raw materials instead of steel and other value added products?
only considering that part of steel production that is exported back to Australia
Because China (where most of the Australian ore goes, and from where China imports most (2/3) of its ore for that ...
- 145k
15
votes
Why was Australia willing to pay $3.0 B/unit for the French diesel-electric submarines?
I agree with @Fizz's answer, but there is an important detail to add. Australia was buying secret military technology. The project includes a Pump-jet drive that the French claim is more silent than ...
- 7,140
12
votes
Why are other countries reacting negatively to Australia's decision to deploy nuclear submarines?
Because the use of nuclear reactors on warships blows a giant hole in the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT):
There is already a military reactor loophole in the
NPT. Article III.1 provides that:
Each ...
- 2,302
11
votes
Accepted
Why do countries keep the British Monarch as their head of state?
In part this is tied to the notion of the Commonwealth of Nations. Unlike the US, nations of the Commonwealth gained independence through civil and legal procedures as the British colonial system ...
- 67.7k
10
votes
Accepted
What does 'robust political insult' mean?
What does 'robust political insult' mean?
I read this as meaning that Australians are more plain speaking.
From a list of Australian political insults
Howard is an a-se-licker. He went over ...
- 89.3k
10
votes
Why does Australia not tolerate China building a base in Solomon Islands if they think Russia should tolerate NATO expansion in Ukraine?
First, as mentioned in the comments, it's important to note that the question conflates a military aggression in Ukraine and the diplomatic expression of a disagreement. These are obviously not on the ...
- 16.2k
10
votes
Accepted
Which countries are registered as companies in the USA?
There are many countries, states/provinces, and organizations that are registered with the SEC and have filed an 18-K form, and they file it so they can issue securities in US markets.
This site ...
- 10.2k
9
votes
Why was excluding Australian Aboriginal populations from the Race Power considered racist?
As noted clearly in the Wikipedia article about Section 51(xxvi) of the Australian constitution, the purpose of the section was within the broader enumeration of federal powers, to allow the ...
- 4,359
9
votes
Why would low-skilled British workers go to Sydney and Melbourne (in large numbers)?
Because it is already an issue.
Visa Overstayers
However, an estimated 86,940 people who entered Australia in 2017–18 breached their visa conditions. Many of them quickly left the country, but as of ...
- 23.9k
9
votes
Why did China target Australia for economic sanctions?
Oh, sure, Australia supported the investigation into China's initial covid handling and has been in the doghouse ever since. Why, they might even have mentioned the Uighurs! There's also been ...
9
votes
Why are other countries reacting negatively to Australia's decision to deploy nuclear submarines?
There is a major difference between a nuclear powered submarine and a PET scanner. New Zealand doesn't ban PET scanner but they do ban nuclear power plants and that is what powers a nuclear submarine. ...
- 7,037
9
votes
Accepted
Why does Australia not tolerate China building a base in Solomon Islands if they think Russia should tolerate NATO expansion in Ukraine?
China has already signed a defense pact of sorts with the Solomon Islands. One draft had some interesting provisions like:
The draft agreement says China, with Honiara’s consent, can send police and ...
- 145k
8
votes
Australian Head of State
The Queen of Australia, i.e. Elizabeth II. The Commonwealth realms have the same monarch and the same line of succession, but as a legal matter they are separate monarchies of separate and independent ...
- 13.8k
8
votes
How did the liberal party win when labor party has more votes?
Looking at that link, it looks like the "coalition" of the Liberal Party includes other parties. Wikipedia says
The main members of the Coalition at the federal level are the Liberal Party of ...
- 89.3k
8
votes
Accepted
Why did Australia grant refugee visas to Syrians despite their extremely harsh immigration policies?
The official message of the Turnbull government is that the “Pacific solution” is intended to discourage the dangerous passage by sea and undermine criminal networks making money out of it. In that ...
- 30.5k
8
votes
How did so many Australian politicans recently win Parliamentary seats while unaware of or denying their second nationality?
Since you asked "how were they unaware", the answer is surprisingly simple.
A lot of people simply don't know (and largely don't care) about being technically a dual citizen. Heck, I might ...
- 91.8k
8
votes
Is Wentworth particularly pro-Israel, and why?
The comparison with the US isn't very contructive because they're very different countries (e.g. Americans are much more religious, and there isn't a powerful, organised evangelical lobby in Australia)...
- 1,613
8
votes
Why do countries keep the British Monarch as their head of state?
Not all countries are the same, and may have different reasons. The reasons given for Australia in this answer are likely to be common across other countries. To summarize:
For a lot of people having ...
- 15.2k
8
votes
Why was Australia willing to pay $3.0 B/unit for the French diesel-electric submarines?
The estimates of the per-unit costs of the original bids seem widely off. They refer to off-the-shelf submarines delivered to other navies, not any of the options Australia had on the table when they ...
- 30.5k
8
votes
What is "quantum" and why is it "incredibly important for Australia's defense", or for any advanced country's defense for that matter?
Quantum here is a fancy word for modern electronics. Most computers and other electronic devices used nowadays are still classical (as opposed to quantum) in the sense that the size of the elements of ...
- 12k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible