Speaking of Holidays From Hell. South Australia! Don't go there.

Where waiters drooled. And Nuns' knuckles draggeth.

Bye,bye Adelaide. No NSW power for you. Your concentrated Greens and Lefties can sort it out.

McCackie,
Your whinging may have seemed credible if there were a direct connection between the SA and NSW grids. But there isn't and it doesn't.

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plantagenet,
I see you've never been to Kangaroo Island!

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Alan B.,
Fear of debt is a big part of the problem. But investing in unproven power technology is unlikely to be the best solution. Small nuclear is likely to work out more expensive than solar power.

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morebento,
Reports of Nick Xenophon's protectionism are greatly exaggerated. But one thing we should be doing is investing billions in molten oxide electrolysis research, as this could eventually revive our steel industry.

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Cobber the hound,
Free trade is a good thing, but it's not a substitute for good economic management, nor even for knowing what good economic management is. Until the government stops chasing surpluses for their own sake, the economy will remain in trouble.

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Malcolm 'Paddy' King,
For decades Australia's interest rates have been set too high for SA. The 50% of revenue coming from Canberra (which AIUI actually includes GST revenue from SA) is inadequate compensation for this.
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Shadow Minister,
'Twas their Liberal predecessors selling off SA's power infrastructure that's most to blame for making it so expensive, and indeed for keeping the Libs in opposition since.

Yes Malcolm, you are right. SA is leading the way down.
We will all follow a couple of years behind.
Our problem is the politicians do not understand what is going on.
Even the worldwide decline in GDP, negative interest rates, enormous
debt by governments, business & individuals does not raise an eyebrow.

SA will start moving into a new form of economy as the standard capital
model becomes obsolete. We have one advantage, we can produce food that
the rest of the world will happily buy IF international trade continues.
Our future is in agriculture.

We will need nuclear power eventually to run this new economy.
While we get on asap with that we will have to use our coal resources
to build them and the solar & wind systems that are affordable.
South Aus could become the centre of nuclear industry and power and
supply other states with backup power.

However even with that project under way we will have to become a
rural production economy.
We will have to be self supporting in almost every way as Europe
may well be in chaos with war with moslem countries or civil wars.
China also may have problems with their declining economy.

With the unreliable inadequate windymill power supply how are they going to build the submarines at the Sth Aust shipyards ?

The power cable link to the ever reliable 24/7 Victorian coal fired power generators is absolutely vital and essential, just like Tasmania.

Bazz

The much lauded free trade agreements are more likely to operate against Australia.

The report "Economic benefits of Australia’s North Asian FTAs" shows that while free trade agreements could boost exports by 0.5% to 1.5%, they are also likely to boost imports by 2.5%.

http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Documents/economic-modelling-of-australias-north-asia-ftas.pdf

So Australia goes backwards...yet again.

For Australia to increase its agricultural exports, it will have to find new arable land and new water supplies.

Like...find another country.

Maybe the ice cap on Antarctica will melt, and revel land suitable for agriculture.

Maybe not.

Meanwhile, the arable land in Australia is being eaten up with housing development, and Australia now places most importance on increasing the population through immigration to create urban sprawl.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sprawl-eating-us-out-of-house-and-homes-20100515-v5dd.html