Getting ready for the Dragon Dance at a Multicultural Festival in Hobart The tripling of the oil price in the 1970’s was not the only shockwave to hit the Australian economy. When Britain joined the European Common Market in 1973, Australia had to scramble to find new markets for its produce which had hitherto reliably gone to the UK. It entered into a number of free trade agreements such as the one between Australia and New Zealand, between Singapore and Australia and one with China in the 1980s. It also led to the dismantling of tariff barriers between countries which meant that labour intensive industries such as clothing and footwear could not compete with those produced with cheaper labour in Asia. Soon other companies also sought to take advantage of cheaper production abroad and Australia’s factories began to close. Australia could now no longer accommodate large numbers of unskilled workers -"factory fodder” as it were, and shifted its focus to skilled migration, bu...