Mandy, sorry to see you did not get in.
I agree with you about ‘data rape’. Personally, I think all Australians should consider an American divorce! Get rid of everything related to the government of losers: their cars (Chinese EVs are better built anyway!), their money-hungry social media and phone/computer apps etc, etc.
Unfortunately it seems the US is a nation of carpetbaggers trying to extort from the rest of the world. The reality is we really do not need them. Trump just found this out when the Chinese waited for Trump to approach them about the ludicrous tariffs. (I feel the Chinese won round one!)
In my opinion the rest of the world should work around the US instead of trying to make Trump see sense. If Trump needs Australia, make him come to us like the Chinese have done. We do not need AUKUS. Why we cancelled the French contract that had an end date I do not know!
We should look to the Japanese or others if we really need last century’s submarine technology; everything is now visible from satellite, so we should look to other technologies like drones. Even better, design our own and sell to other countries that also want to bypass the US!
The US is also illegally supporting one country to starve another population as well as attack it into oblivion. The new Australian government should not help the US in any way that could be found to be illegal by the International Criminal Court: We supplied weapon parts to the US that were on-sold to this operation in the Middle East. This needs to stop I feel.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
