proud to be Aussie, Gary

What i said was correct, as in “almost”.

Considering that ADF has the 13th largest budget for any armed forces in the world today, the sheer quantity of items they use or sheer quantity of stores and ordinance used means that some is made off-shore. Even the US MIlitary uses things made out-side of the US of A.

The only high-tech part of the material in uniforms are the chemical treatments used for insect repellent, water-proofing and anti-luminesence, apart from that the material is relatively common and the cam pattern is even relatively well known so there is no secrecy issue.

Again, it has nothng to do with the topic at hand.

Regards,

Crimson

On 28 January you said “You also seam to forget that almost everything used by the ADF is actually made here in Australia.”

Well, in todays Daily Telegraph the following appears

AUSTRALIAN soldiers will be sent to war wearing uniforms with camouflage material made in China under a new round of Defence cost cutting.

The decision could put at risk the jobs of up to 400 textile workers and has raised national security concerns.

The hi-tech material for the uniforms, which are also worn by SAS troops, is currently made in Wangaratta in Victoria by Bruck Textiles.</em

So another 400 jobs sold to China. I'm sure our diggers will be proud to pull on their camouflage suits and see the label "Fabrique en Chine" hanging out.

And your point is?

Not exactly sure what it has to do with either Tony A or multiculturalism or Australia's genitic diversity or multiculturalism either.

As i have pointed out previous, the average wage in Australia is now over $1,000 a week, even the minimum wage is well above the labour rates in China. So of-course companies are going to go to where they can be more profitiable and of-course people are going to buy what is cheapest and governments are no exception.

Do you think the situation would be any different with Tony A in charge or anyone else? Do you think even the APP could justify the expense for expense sake to parliment? Do you think the APP could tackle the 20,000 personel strong procurement department?

Crimson

The ADF also uses MANPADs made in Sweden, UAVs made in Israel and many other items made in places all over the word (everywhere except Russia) and uniforms will only add another item of foreign sourced items to the list.

I could not disagree with you more on the notion that Australia’s early population was Saxon-Nordic, that would literally equate to most of our early migrants coming from the Baltic Region, an that certainly isn’t the case.

Most migrants and convicts who came to Australia were either Anglo-Celt or Anglo-Saxon with perhaps some viking era blood lines included.

As i said, Nord is not all encompassing, far from it.

Sandon,

As i said, genetics determin race, not geography or anything else. The idea of Nation is in one sense purely geographical or natural sense, this is certainly the case for Aboriginal People. Seconly, the United States of America is founded as a nation on the principle of shared ideal and not race or culture.

There is not one single notion of nation or national identity, it could also be argued that much of Australia’s national identity is geographical and our relationship with the geography as oposed to some sense of a single racial or cultural identity.

Regards,

Crimson