Re: This doesn't make sense..
"So why would it be shipped in?"
Probably the crooks made some risk calculation, and decided it would be safer for them making the product abroad and then sending the stuff through customs. Production in Australia has lots of risks and depends on several controlled substances, that in turn have to be smuggled into the country, significantly rising the risk of being discovered.
On the other hand, in China, you probably can rent an industrial facility to make tons of this stuff, pay the workers a minimal salary and be safe from police interference, just by greasing the right hands.
Obviously, the 'production abroad' method needs some safe way to send the stuff through customs, and these crims thought they had such method. Soon someone will try to improve it by making meth look like toner, probably by adding squid ink.
He he!, it's an arms race, only that one part has to expend many millions in customs agent's wages, detector devices, surveillance and the whatnot, while the other just needs to go to the fish market. :-)