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Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

independent.co.uk

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Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#171

Post by astrange »

mianos wrote: post #75
mindwok wrote: post #12

As an Australian, I have noticed a shift personally in feeling like I identify more with "European" culture, compared to 10 years ago I felt like we were the 51st state and I felt very close with the US. This seems to be shared by others, I remember reading there was a survey that asked Australians who they felt our closest international friend was. The US was the top answer for over a decade, having stolen the crown…

Having spent a lot of time in the UK, EU and US, I feel Sydney is way more like California than say London or European cities, in terms of living, shopping and culture. Even things from the US are coming here, like the growth of Halloween. If you walk into a shop, the US is much more like Australia in terms of service and attitude (even though retail staff are paid vastly differently). I always thought this was due t…

> Even things from the US are coming here, like the growth of Halloween.

Halloween is nearly 100% Irish/Scottish. The only American contributions are using a pumpkin, and sometimes holding it in a parking lot.

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#172

Post by astrange »

blululu wrote: post #112
mianos wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having spent a lot of time in the UK, EU and US, I feel Sydney is way more like California than say London or European cities, in terms of living, shopping and culture. Even things from the US are coming here, like the growth of Halloween. If you walk into a shop, the US is much more like Australia in terms of service and attitude (even though retail staff are paid vastly differently). I always thought this was due t…

I've always felt that Australia felt like a British version of California. Though California is itself a bit exceptional in the context of America. The two places have a lot in common though - not withstanding the fact that everyone drives on the wrong side of the road and uses different power cables.

Brisbane is like Miami if it was full of British people. (Except richer and with sunburns.)

Melbourne is like Seattle if… actually it's literally just Seattle except they think they invented it.

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#173

Post by astrange »

dofm wrote: post #103
tecoholic wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven’t Australians just moved to US - Keith Urban, Chris Hemsworth, Russel Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie and the list goes on … it’s not the same way as Japanese’s or Korean output, because English as the native language makes the transition seamless and doesn’t stand out. Oh! I forgot JIRA and Atlassian are Australian too :D Now you really can’t deny you haven’t felt the Australian influence in your life. Lol

Canva, Blackmagic Design. Wifi, actually, was developed there (CSIRO patents)

rsync, seL4, Google Photos and Maps, Jira and Confluence

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#174

Post by ulfw »

mrcwinn wrote: post #100
mindwok wrote: post #12

As an Australian, I have noticed a shift personally in feeling like I identify more with "European" culture, compared to 10 years ago I felt like we were the 51st state and I felt very close with the US. This seems to be shared by others, I remember reading there was a survey that asked Australians who they felt our closest international friend was. The US was the top answer for over a decade, having stolen the crown…

As an American, I hope you can identify strongly as an Australian. Why bother telling yourself you’re something of a European? In any case, I hope countries form ties with Europe. Europe needs be economically stronger than it is. Better for the world, so long as they can slow their tendencies toward government control and censorship.

You're native American or why do you say something like this?

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#175

Post by unixhero »

tripleee wrote: post #93
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spelling the country's name correctly is one of few prerequisites. Maybe if Australia created very strong trade ties with Taiwan, we would change the name of the country to Asustralia.

I do believe they were talking about Asutralia, not Asustralia. A common misunderstanding. Taiwan might not need to be involved.

But I want to get to know Raygun and learn her styles.

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#176

Post by defrost »

unixhero wrote: post #175
tripleee wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do believe they were talking about Asutralia, not Asustralia. A common misunderstanding. Taiwan might not need to be involved.

But I want to get to know Raygun and learn her styles.

Global breaking just wasn't ready for interpretive dance ...

FWiW, released last month: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/sep/01/raygun-...

as part of Untold (2021) https://www.thetvdb.com/series/407414-untold/allseasons/offi...

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#177

Post by rsynnott »

hunterpayne wrote: post #153
holgerschurig wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, socialism died out in Europe around 1989. When the iron curtain fell. Currently there is not a single country that has socialism in it's constitution. In the EU, but also in exactly zero non-EU european countries. To educate: socialism has nothing to with how influence the execute or legislative has. Nor has it anything to do with health insurance. The central point of the ideology called "socialism" is that co…

The irony of this post is truly off the scale. The term socialism wasn't defined by Marx. That's the heart of why you don't understand the definition of that word. There are a half dozen different branches with different definitions, all of which predate Marx. The only reason that you think that is that Lenin made him famous. But you can have socialism without any of the things you mention. It still doesn't work but…

> Or Britain and Spain today. Those are all socialist societies by their own definitions.

... Er, no, Britain is not a socialist society by its own definitions, or anyone else's (unless you want to stretch the term so far that it encompasses Labour's fairly minimal social democracy, but at that point the term is becoming almost meaningless). Where are you getting that?

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#178

Post by rsynnott »

edgyquant wrote: post #122
dofm wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI I don’t think anyone is accepting American critique on government control and censorship right now. Maybe leave it for a decade or two.

MAGA wishes it had the control over industries and speech that European governments have. Give me a break

It's, ah, not that simple. So for instance, on speech, see things like https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/20/texas-ken-paxton-elo... .

In the US, some states are politically... out there (Ken Paxton there, you almost wouldn't believe he existed, he's like a caricature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Paxton#Legal_issues). And they can have an impact over the whole union; in this case, a DC journalism non-profit has to take this nonsnse seriously, and had to spend resources defending itself.

In the EU, some countries are politically... out there. For instance, see Hungary, particularly before they managed to dump Orban. But media organisations in, say, Denmark, don't really have to care at all about what Hungary thinks about their reporting; the sort of interstate anti-speech lawfare above simply doesn't really happen in Europe.

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#179

Post by rsynnott »

nl wrote: post #5

Just to be clear on this - Australia is primarily interested in methods of reducing trade barriers, not any sort of political union. Australia is economically served well by free trade: most of its production is low cost, high quality primary production of mining outputs and agricultural goods (grains, wool and meat) where if price and quality are the primary selection criteria it wins. The downside of this is that A…

> Just to be clear on this - Australia is primarily interested in methods of reducing trade barriers, not any sort of political union.

So, at a certain point, that gets fuzzy. The EU and Australia already have a free trade agreement which will remove essentially all tariffs when it goes into operation. But selling stuff from Australia to, say, Belgium will still be more difficult than selling stuff from Spain to Belgium due to lack of regulatory alignment. And regulatory alignment is political.

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#180

Post by rsynnott »

jojobas wrote: post #47
someperson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big part of what makes Australia a better performing economy is maintaining high population growth rate of 1.5%, mostly through immigration. Has had implications on housing affordability, but it's great for GDP statistics. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/aus/aus...

Per capita GDP is falling with every new migrant. I don't think it's the kind of GDP growth anyone wants to have.

For skilled immigration, this is highly unlikely to be the case.
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