Squuers
I think you overlook currency rates, and overlook just how dependant Australia now is on coal. If coal prices were to drop to levels at the start of this decade, Australia would be bankrupt.

Very little is being produced in the country, with some belief that we have also become a net importer of food.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/australia-a-net-importer-of-food-20101027-173kl.html

Reduction in tarrifs should have occurred with an increase in our manufacturing base, but it didn't.

So while you may lecture on the nasty evil tarrifs, do you have any ideas on how to increase our manufacturing base, now that there are few tarrifs?

Dear Vanna,
I was saying exactly that, that manufacturing has largely gone off shore and that countries like Australia rely on resources.

<So while you may lecture on the nasty evil tarrifs, do you have any ideas on how to increase our manufacturing base, now that there are few tarrifs?>

I have no sympathy and am not concerned with Australia, which is a spoiled rich nation that's never done anything to merit its wealth. I'm more interested in fairness, which is a universal concept and cannot exist in one quarter unless it also abides in the others.
But I shall read other people's thoughts with interest and try to sit this one out, as am very busy writing a subversive PhD.

Squuers,
"I have no sympathy and am not concerned with Australia, which is a spoiled rich nation that's never done anything to merit its wealth"

I am wondering where you get the money from to write your PhD.

If you are getting it from the Australian taxpayer, then perhaps you shouldn't be getting it from the Australian taxper.

You haven't suggested how to increase our manufacturing base, or even to stop being a net importer of food, because you don't know how.

That is your merit, and not ironically, most of the universities in this country import almost everything they use, which doesn't say much for their usefullness, self-reliance and know how.

What makes you think that manufacturing in AU is absent. Industrial sites are still expanding. Employment is going well considering:
Someone leaves and someone starts up, i don't see the problem.
If there was anymore manufacturing going on, there would be screems of no staff.

Manufacturing is definitely important, but the new industries of IT, biotech/pharma, electronics etc have largely gone overseas.

That's not to say that (some) of our governments haven't been trying to establish new industries in Australia but our reliance on mining and agriculture can only last so long. I am thinking that diversification will protect the economy from any collapse in resource or agriculture prices. And this is perhaps where subsidising the set-up of new industries is worth the trouble.

Korea, China, SE Asia, India, the Middle East, Brazil...they are all on the way up, while Japan, the US and Europe will at best, in the short term, remain marginally stable. Tourism and education are industries that are now on a downtrend in Australia so while things are still good we should figure out ways to keep the economy that way.

http://currentglobalperceptions.blogspot.com/

Vanna has a bee in his bonnet about this.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/8195905/wa-labour-shortage-looming-again/

The fact is, we are still short of tradesmen and its getting worse.
Whilst we might make less consumers goods, manufacturing of
specialised gear for all those mining developments is growing.

You won't spend 200 billion $ on new mining venture investments,
without creating a hell of a lot of manufacturing jobs.

But Vanna doesen't see these, as they are not goods sold
at Harvey Norman.

What we are really short of in Australia is training. Too many
people are happy to remain unskilled, staying on their butts
in Sydney and Melbourne and want a job down the road. It ain't
that simple.