The author could be right about the past, but the future for Australia is likely to be different.

In the past, Australia sold its natural resources to get revenue, but the easy to get at natural resources have now been got.

Productivity in mining has been declining for some decades, as it is becoming more expensive to operate a mine.

“output generated by each hour worked is now 56 per cent lower than in 2002.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-15/mining-productivity-slumps-over-past-decade/4628866

This has little to do with wages, and more to do with the depth of the current coal and iron ore deposits, and the quality of those deposits.

Farming is also becoming less productive, as increasing oil prices drives up the cost of diesel and fertilizer, which reduces farm profitability.

About 300 farmers a month are leaving the land while there are about 100,000 less farmers now than in 1981.

http://www.nff.org.au/blueprint.html

So many companies are now foreign owned, and company profits leave the country and are not being recycled through our economy.

The velocity of money goes down, as so much money leaves the country.

The list can go on, but in general, Australia has depended on selling its natural resources in the past, but as these natural resources are used up, Australia is becoming less viable.

This is made much worse by increasing the population through immigration, which requires more resources are used up at a greater rate.

..."Cobber the hound" alludes to a future revolution in Australia. Interestingly, a spectacle plays-out before our eyes in Iraq right now; the most hated opponents of jihadist militant group ISIS, are the State operatives such as the Iraqi army: They were killed “execution style” in numbers.

...Our job as citizens of Australia is to identify the enemy! I think a good starting point, is with elitist elements of the governing body!

Higher wages are driven by productivity.

If 10 Australians with better education and technology can manufacture as much as 1000 chinese, then they can command 100x the salary and still be competitive. As productivity in Aus is shrinking and wages are still increasing in real terms, jobs will simply fade away to other countries.

The requirements for equality is global. The gap that needs to be closed is between the poorest in the world vs the richest. This is not likely to be palatable to anyone.

Shadow Minister,
Your suggestion relies on the Chinese not using the most modern
equipment in their factories.
The problem is they use cheap labour AND the most modern equipment.

If the labour market were as strong as Angus Taylor says, then you would expect low rates of unemployment and underemployment. The official unemployment figures are artificially low because the criteria that are used for determining unemployment are far too restrictive. For example, if you have given up looking for work after hundreds of knock-backs, you don't count as unemployed. Nor do you count as unemployed if you have worked for one hour a week, even unpaid in a family business.

To see what is really happening, take a look at the real unemployment rate from Roy Morgan Research.

http://www.roymorgan.com/morganpoll/unemployment/underemployment-estimates

Their June 2014 figures show 10.6% unemployment on top of 9.5% underemployment (i.e. working part-time but wanting more hours), so that 20.1% of the working age population is either unemployed or underemployed. At the same time, we have been acquiring 5 new people for every new full-time job.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/skilled-newcomers-flood-fulltime-jobs-market-20130614-2o9vm.html#ixzz2YLJos5JE

The labour market situation here isn't as bad as in the US - yet, but it is certainly heading in the same direction, and yes, there are a lot of worries concerning exhaustion of resources and threats from the global environmental situation.

Bazz,

Having been to China, they are certainly using high tech equipment where they have to, but skimp on labour saving devices where the cost of labour does not warrant it, and use far more people to produce the same output. As labour costs are rising, this is changing.