If Australia's mining industry is serious about ensuring that it has a long-term future, it should forget about John Howard and instead focus on selling or marketing itself to the Australian public. At present, the public perception of the industry is not very positive: digging holes in the ground, destroying the environment, polluting waterways, exporting our raw materials overseas unprocessed and so on. The truth is quite different, of course, but no one is out there telling Australians what is true.

So what should the mining industry do? It should
* sponsor a football, cricket and/or rugby team in each state
* have large family-friendly displays at EVERY agricultural show in every state
* pay to have an Australian-produced TV series like Blue Heelers but featuring the comings and goings of the mining industry and the people who work in it
* get into every school in every state with a travelling display that is both informative, educational and interesting.

There's probably many other things that the industry should do to make itself as popular as our farming industry. However, regardless of the detail, the goal should be to have the Australian public tell Mr Howard and the state and territory leaders that they (the public) support the mining industry and want it to survive for many generations.

Sadly, after a lifetime of working in the industry, I'm aware that its leaders are scared of the public and prefer to keep as low a profile as possible. The result is and will continue to be an industry that doesn't get the government support it needs and a continuation of the last 20 years' trend of mining being denied in the southern half of Australia where most people live and more mining in the north where it's out of sight and hence largely out of mind.