"it could have been used to create work and jobs in this country by insisting it was used on services only. Not washing machines out of China"
Simple answer it was.
One of the primary aims was to keep our retail sector a float , most goods sold in Australian retail stores are manufactured outside of Australia.
But the person who unloads the ship is Australian. The person working for customs Australia. The truck driver who takes to the warehouse Australia. The person who checked inot the warehosue and stores it Australia. The person who makes the sale in the store Australia The person delivering to your house Australia.
By buying that washing machine from China the person spending that money has contributed to keeping many Australians in a job on the retail side and I won't go into where the raw materials came from to build the washing machine in the first place.
Try looking at the whole picture rather than the one that suits your opinion.
