< His basic point is well made. That Australia is a success, that it owes its success to its own efforts, and that both sides of politics – Labor and Liberal – have crafted it between them. >

Yes Graham, but what about the future?

Our whole economy is built on a house of cards - totally dependent on fossils fuels, and at a price that cannot be too much higher than at present without having major impacts. And we’ve got to dig up our primary resources and flog them off at an ever greater rate, just to stay still in economic terms and terms of quality of life for Australian citizens, not least because both Labor and Liberal insist on us having absurdly high immigration / population growth.

Does Hartcher entertain any thought at all for the imperative of developing a sustainable society?

Wasn’t Australia Day an ideal time for reflection on how we are (not) proceeding towards this all-important goal?

Self-congratulation is a dangerous activity. Even accepting the flattery of other countries is a distraction.

We should take note of the fates of previous "miracle" economies.

The US believed its own publicity, and embarked on a borrow-and-spend spree whose immediate effects will be felt for decades to come, and whose long-term impact could well be a permanent reduction in their global political influence.

Ireland owed its "Celtic Tiger" reputation to massive inward capital investment and liberal funding from the EU, which served to inflate its property prices until they hid the underlying fragility of the "working economy". When these slowed - as they inevitably would - the collapse was quick, and nasty.

Japan, at the height of its "miracle" status allowed property prices to escalate to the point where Tokyo real estate exceeded US$200k per square metre.

http://www.housingjapan.com/2011/11/10/a-history-of-tokyo-real-estate-prices/

While it is easy to point the finger at real estate alone, government actions, intended to spread the prosperity more uniformly across the economy, only exacerbated the situation.

It is tempting to wallow in the praise of others and bask in the sunshine of our good fortune, but we should avoid doing so.

I'd vastly prefer our tendency for pessimistic, small-c conservative economic management to continue, and that we close our ears to the siren song that "we've never had it so good".

Anyone else remember Harold Macmillan?

"Mr Macmillan told Tory supporters: 'Go around the country, go to the industrial towns, go to the farms and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime – nor indeed in the history of this country.'"

That was in 1957. It was all downhill from there, until a brief resurgence in the eighties and nineties. Then once again a blind fiscal carelessness, born of unprecedented prosperity and a feeling that the economy was invincible, came into play.

Graham exhorts us:

"Now that Hartcher has stated the facts it behoves everyone who cares about Australia should be talking them up."

I disagree. Now is the time to be on our guard against any form of hubris whatsoever.

AUSTRALIA DAY?? GILLARD SHOULD APOLOGISE

For her crappy form. A PM Minister who can't keep her feet in a riot deserves to stand down.

Planta

I thought Hartcher's book was very good but like Graham, felt it needed more graphics and citations. But I'm mindful Hatcher is a journo.

I thought it good medicine against the naysayers. We too often forget that Hawke & Keating and Howard and Costello pretty much got it right re economic fundamentals.

I have a few more concerns about social Australia and tension in the polity re Aboriginal affairs (an sore which has gone on far too long) as well as serious design - or no design - in urban planning.

I haven't read the book, but this sounds a bit simplistic. On the dominance of mining, mining exports in 09-10 were $128 billion; the nearest competitor was manufacturing at $29bn. This imbalance is set to increase, and 2014-15 predictions are for $172bn and $33bn respectively.

See http://anthillonline.com/ibisworld-reveals-top-aussie-export-industries-for-2010/

From this perspective, there would seem to be a big problem of eggs and baskets. It would be foolish of any government not to try to spread the benefits more broadly (though there would be many ways of doing this: wealth fund; social investment; education etc).

One of the things we've learned over the period Graham refers to is that the trickle down effect is a very poor mechanism for improving welfare for all.

A good article - compared to almost all other developed countries, Australia's economy is performing very well.

Godo

Yes, exports have risen to a large proportion of Australia’s exports. What do you suggest, that the government bans mining exports? How could that advance our economic wellbeing?

And the article makes no mention of “trickle down”, for good reason – that is not how the benefits of economic growth are distributed.