I have recently returned to Australia from the United Kingdom where for the past 5 years I’ve been looking after my mum. My dear Mother passed away on October 3 2019.
Returning to Australia after a five year absence has reminded me of how special Australia is and how important it should be that I and my fellow Australians understand that our uniqueness culturally, economically and environmentally must be protected.
We are unique in the World. Our population of 25 million on a land mass nearly as large as North America has the opportunity to lead the World not only in renewable energy technology but in Conservation Technology and in new cutting edge manufacturing technologies. We should be the most technologically advanced Nation in the World in those key sectors but we are not. In fact we are fast becoming a technology backwater.
Our resources sector has produced an ineffective, inefficient and unproductive Government Sector that has not had the intellectual ability to provide a long-term Vision for Australia and the Strategies that are required for a dynamic progressive Economy. There is no polite way to describe Australian Government. Mediocre, unbelievably selfish and self-obsessed is as kind as I can be. They would not last very long in any other Country. Australians are trusting people and very conservative so a Revolution is unlikely.
Australia has become a slowly advancing tide of economic decline and falling standards of living, supported only by increased lending at both State and National Level and by Immigration Economic Stimulation.
To put it bluntly Australian Politicians pre-occupy themselves with bureaucracy rather than Government. The luxury of having an Economy dominated by predominately the Resource Sector has produced Government at both Federal and State level which does not lead in any economic fields. Rather our Government(s) seeks instead to regulate that which it cannot manage. The cost of that form of Government is one of the most costly $ to Citizen Government bureaucratic burdens in the developed World. Australian Government(s) increase that burden by purchasing debt with imports of capital production which should have been made in Australia.
Australian are living on the fumes of a rapidly emptying gas tank and a World which advances around it whilst Australia becomes a technology backwater.
Sydney is a disaster area. An economic war-zone which sucks in new immigrants and their money whilst spitting out Australians into suburbs with little in the way of Social facilities and Public Transport for those who make the daily traffic nightmare into Sydney for work. Pollution is ignored as expensive Motorway Tolls cause huge traffic buildups as motorists bypass the Motorways to avoid the Tolls.
in Sydney a complete Hospitality and Entertainment industry has been decimated by the ridiculous and child-like ‘Lock Out’ Laws removing jobs, new investment and tourism. No other modern developed City in the World has such draconian licensing laws. Shops, Cafes, Bars and Clubs sit empty in the many streets in and around Sydney City. There are many solutions to alcohol fuelled violence this was the most over-reacting and irresponsible of them.
Unbelievably a Spanish Company was used to headup the new Sydney Light Rail. Then even more unbelievable they began constructing it all over the City instead of sections of useable rail and then even more unbelievable they built it on old narrow roads with years of old pipes and cables instead of the newer wider roads and then to compound the unbelievable with even more unbelievable it does not go to Bondi Beach.
I have used Sydney as an example of mediocre Politicians who produce mediocre solutions but in that respect it would appear to be an Australia-wide phenomenon.
Whilst Australia supplied a never-ending demand for its resources then mediocre Politicians did not matter. They could spend $50 million on Captain Cook’s memorial – just in case we forgot who he was. Or $41 million on Space Exploration but not on desalination technology or solar farm investment.
Australians have to demand of their Politicians that which they provide to them; productive effort which produces a positive collective result.
There are decisions Australians need to make and it should be all the people of Australia that makes those decisions not the media and certainly not a political system which has become a dinosaur in modern politics and an adversary to the future of Australia.
I have never met Malcolm Turnbull, Morrison or Bill Shorten but I believe their outdated style of politics is a threat to the economic future of Australia. The people of Australia cannot continue to let political selfishness be the criteria for their economic future. Both Turnbull and Shorten would appear to suffer from myopia in that they are unable to provide a vision for the future of Australia that does not involve themselves.
Australia is unique. Of that there is no doubt. It is a country of extremes and a Nation of contrasts. But it is that uniqueness that holds the key to the future and one which the short-sightedness’ of the Political Parties is ignoring.
Australia needs a future which should be described in our Prime Minister’s Vision for Australia. But where is it? Turnbull was asleep at the wheel, Shorten has yet to learn to drive and Morrison cannot be trusted.
The People of Australia must demand more of their Governments. It is not just Americans who can be great.
The only constant is change. Of that statement much can be said about the destructive force of Australian Politics. The Australian economy is non-existent. There is not an economic system. Take away the resource sector of Australia and what is left?
Australia cannot continue to live the good life on coal exports, ore shipments and gold production.
Why not? Coal demand will decline as the Paris 21 Agreement begins to shape the Energy requirements of the future. China is fast expanding into Africa and has employed the Taliban to provide security for its resource projects in Afghanistan. We are not the only country who has ore and we must prepare for the long-term which will undoubtedly lead to a declining Australia resource sector.
Over the last 20 years Australia has given away its economy. Car manufacturing has been replaced by a flight of Australian dollars to Japan, the U.K, India, America and Europe. So too have other industries been replaced by imports.
What have we replaced each fleeing dollar with? The Banking sector has turned its back on the Agriculture Sector which should be the ‘Food Bowl’ of Asia and a dynamo of innovation. Instead it is seen as the poor cousin to the Finance Sector which the Banks have courted for instant profit but not long-term gain. As we become somebody else’s economy then our Banks are no longer needed because they use their money to invest and return the profits overseas.
The NSW Government buys trains from South Korea, a tramline from Spain and through AREANA a Federal Solar Power Funding Scheme providing power from solar panels made anywhere but Australia. No doubt the other states too fund everybody’s economy but Australia’s.
Australia needs a Vision for its future. This is mine……
The only way by which we as a Nation can sustain our high standard of living is by increasing Agriculture exporting, becoming a high-tech clean energy producer and exporter, and by using innovative manufacturing techniques to build and export ‘niche vehicles’ and trains. We also need a new City of a minimum of one million people- one which will draw visitors from all over the World – the World’s first ‘Green Only City – zero emissions totally Climate Change neutral.
Immigration Policy has to benefit Australia. Immigration must be balanced from all parts of the World. The alternative is a service dominated labour force with low skills and the inability to form a highly-skilled workforce and an ‘increasing rise in Culture Clash’.
Australia is one of the most Bureaucratic Countries in the World. Red Tape costs. There are many duplicated Government Services which need to be rationalized at both State and Federal Level.
Australia has given away a whole Industry. It is unbelievable that it was done without a riot. But it was. Australia no longer has a Car Industry. More unbelievable is that there is no significant ‘local content requirement’ for Vehicle Manufacturers. There is no such thing as a ‘level playing field’. You have to make your own.
Australians must own and direct their Economy. No foreign entity should ever own more than 49 per cent of any strategic Industry or Company and that includes Water Rights.
Australia has the potential to become a World Leader in Renewable Energy and developing a coal fuel that is carbon and climate change neutral. We live in the World’s largest laboratory for renewable energy and we have a land mass that will grow anything provided we can get the water to it – and we are surrounded by water. Australia can become the World’s Leader in desalination technology. Australia should also build the largest Solar Power Plant in the World. Everybody wants clean finished energy and we have all that is necessary to provide it.
Australia is running out of both economic empowerment and time if it is to avoid becoming an Economy by cutting supply costs ie labour rates and not by meeting and determining demand with manufactured goods and hi-tech niche products.
At the time of writing this paragraph (14618) the National Debt if Australia is $30,790 AUD per person. The total National Debt is $767,419,205,000 – increasing at a rate of over $1000 a second. Turnbull and now Morrison who do not seem to have any vision for Australia outside of the next election do not appear to understand that we are not the only country who is able to produce ore.
However, we are one of the few countries who have a land mass that can produce far more food than we need and more energy than we can consume.
Australians have a high standard of living but appear to be unable to comprehend that it is not their many service industries who have supported their incredibly high levels of bureaucracy it is Western Australia and its ore and other States resources. Take that away and Australia becomes a third World Country.
I could go on but I will not. The Australian Media will not report me or my work. The People of Australia do not seem to mind that they are slowly edging towards economic oblivion. I have had my say if they wish to ignore it then that is up to them. There is no compensation for becoming a second-rate economy.
