You are right on the money, merv09.

>>To start, the mined resources are non-renewable, once they're gone, they are gone for good.<<

But where do we go? We don't have a competitive edge in anything else. Our labour rates are too high for simply transformed manufactures, and our experience and skill-base in elaborately transformed is non-existent.

Hasbeen has a point.

>>So hang on, enjoy your big house, while you can. I'm afraid my crystal ball shows a bark hut in the future of many of us<<

Well, maybe not a bark hut, Hasbeen, but a substantially modified lifestyle, supported predominantly by tourism.

And we will need to get a lot smarter to make a go of that, too...

I don't want to sound like the answers too Australia's eco future are straightforward. Article was merely about highlighting some trends and hopefully encouraging debate.

As some of the comments indicate, there are a whole lot of issues that explain our plight and complicate our future ability to resolve them, including our high wages.

As i am still a supporter in freer trade (within reason), it is indeed unlikely that we will return to being ultra-protectionist in manufacturing terms.

However, we can always tinker at the edges in our support of freer trade to ensure that our eco policy mix is more balanced. There are ways that Aust govts can encourage the development and use of goods at the local level.

Sure, it will require our best and brightest to come up with even better analysis and ideas rather than stuff that merely supports the status quo.

We must aim for better analysis that combines the strengths and weaknesses from left and right perspectives in regards to eco matters.
I suspect the best answers and approaches lie somewhere in the middle.

Pericles
"Our labour rates are too high"

I don’t think so. I know of at least one factory in Australia and a comparable factory in Singapore. The Singapore factory that produces the same product has higher rates of pay.

There are also many countries now vastly ahead of Australia in terms of technology, and their education system are the equal to those in Australia, if not better.

As far as tourism goes, I know of quite a few tourist resorts (mainly around the Whitsindays) that don’t even pay their council rates.

We will have to invent a paddle, or better still, import one.

Our labour average labour cost is indeed too high, but this is not due to the average worker.
There are thousands of workers on over $150K who do not justify it, and a few over $1M that definitely don't deserve it.
One man in particular: Murdoch is a *major* impediment to Australia!
As with the USA it is the top 5% that are causing 80% of the problems.
Australia seems paralysed due to the current rent-seekers having blocked all strategic moves by corrupting governance processes.

Pericles, I sure hope you're wrong, I'm not sure I like a future, for our kids of very low wages, often much below award, as they make beds, clean toilets, & pull beers.

I know where you're coming from Vanna. I always found if funny when the greenies, & the unions talked about get rich quick tourist developers. I never saw one who did not go broke. Most developments were usually not even viable for the second owner, who had bought in at half price at the bankrupt sale.

The only one I ever saw make a quid was Keith Williams. The resort went broke, as usual, but he made money using the resort to sell the apartments he build on the island.

I rescued a couple of tourist operations from receivership some years ago. In one I ran the company from the wheelhouse of one of the boats. We could not afford another skipper for the first 12 months.

I communicated by private frequency radio with my secretary/assistant manager/office manager/clerk/order taker/sales girl/cleaner, who must have looked a bit like one of those one armed paper hangers.

I worked from 7.0AM to 9.00PM, & managed at least part of a day off about once every 3 weeks. She worked from 7.30AM to 6.00PM, with one day off a week. That's the one when I took her place, so I had some idea of how hard she worked.

Neither of us took home as much as the award rate for a deck hand.

All the rest of the staff worked for agreed wages, working 8.00AM to 6.00PM or longer, 6 days a week, for about check out chick money. Only the skippers, & some engineers lasted any length of time. The rest were working holiday people, who burnt out quite quickly.

I certainly hope we can find some other way, rather than tourism to sustain the place. Even there, we have much competition with great attractions, & very low labor costs, who will probably nail us to the wall, if they haven't all ready, going by tourist numbers

Hasbeen,
I would think the trade in foreign students is very similar to tourism. Australia might be the flavour of the month for a little while, then the students drift to another country.

The local campus built a new conference center for its staff, complete with video conferencing equipment, reclining chairs and a bar fridge. The only problem was, there were hardly any students, as the foreign students had left and most rooms were empty.

I knew a cleaner at the university who was laid off, and asked them if they ever found something made in Australia at the university. Their answer was that after 3 years cleaning in all the rooms, they never once saw a “Made in Australia” sticker in the so called Australian university.