Well said.

We have many fools running this country who like to rely on economic data that supposedly shows Aust leading the world with few problems.

Lets just all make the pie bigger (the international economy) and hope for the best. We can sell live cattle here and there, and even pretend we are going to be some sort of agriculture superpower for decades to come as long as we get govt out of the way and specialise in what we do well.

There are indeed problems ahead.

Dry land farming is only as reliable as the rain that falls on it!
At some point, farming ceases to be viable.
We see that as a line between arid and agricultural, and that line is moving!
There's nothing the current govts can or will do about it!
Food bowl or quarry?
Well quarries have extremely finite lifetimes! So I guess it's the food bowl.
As for growing a bigger pie?
That's not what politicians do. Their only traditional response, or Pavlov like conditioned reflex, to worsening economic conditions, is to make them worse though budget cuts and or, asinine austerity?
Why?
Well, because they believe, we don't have enough money?
They think we need foreign capital?
And given that this comes in as a debt, covered all too often by a technically worthless letter of credit?
Accepting this money is just adding exponentially to a growing record foreign debt, asset stripping, profit shifting and endemic tax avoidance.
So, are there any other choices?
Well, given it is accomplished with just the stroke of a few keys, quantitative easing and a doubled domestic money supply beckons.
And yes, that measure, would likely drive down the AUD, to at least 65 cents, which virtually every farmer, manufacturer, tourist operator or exporter, will attest, would be no bad thing! {We will have to wean ourselves off of foreign fuel! Thankfully, we have copious local supplies!]
After that, genuine tax reform that ends the need for compliance and all associated costs, would turn the ship of state around and heading in the right direction.
Publicly provided cheap energy, would put some real wind in her economic sails. [See, Thorium cheaper than coal!]
The rest is steering a better course, by just simply investing in our own people, and their better ideas; and subsequently, wrestling back our economic sovereignty, from those carpet bagging multi nationals, who have largely conned or stolen it from us; aided and abetted by, I believe, the money grubbing, [I'm all right jack,] quislings who serve them?
Rhrosty.

Rhosty, do you write articles for OLo or elsewhere. If not, you should be. i like your passion and 'can do' ideas and mentality.

A mate of mine is a retired wheat farmer, from out Dolby way. Great country on the old treeless plain.

One son is trying to carry on the tradition as the 4Th generation of the family on the property.

He tells me it is getting harder.

His grand father needed one good crop every 4 years to be viable. His father could afford a couple of complete failures, provided one crop was a good one.

He needed a good crop every second year. He had to add some acreage, & cotton to be viable.

His son can afford only one year in 4 without good, or at least moderate crops, & also requires a couple of hundred acres of cotton every second year to be viable. The only thing that could make a difference is irrigation, but the greenies would scream at any increase in water use for something useful.

Any increase in costs, like fuel prices, & the place won't be worth farming. They don't see how they could afford to replace the header, & are seriously thinking about getting out, while the land prices don't reflect the lack of profitability.

With current exchange rates farming is Oz is shot, & the fools in the reserve bank & treasury can't even see it.

God help us.

Did anyone else notice that news item that the Chinese are asking for
the Foreign Investment Board's amount over which they must judge be
lifted from $250 million to $1 billion ?

I believe up till now they have been buying adjacent properties under
$250M and joining them together. They must be getting bored with doing
that and just want to buy more of Australia in bigger bights.

What is the effect on sovereignty when the buyer is a foreign government ?
After all the US bought Alaska from the Russians.
If the Chinese can argue sovereignty over all the South China Sea
what might be next ?

Rhrosty - There is a potential fortune being overlooked - that being the tax exemption status given to charities which in essence are going above being a charity and are involved in commercial businesses.
One example is the Royal Far West charity which has just been given approval for two towers of eight and six storeys, including retail, residential and hotel accommodation on the Manly beachfront.

I suspect taxpayers loose millions in tax here alone.