Seeing that it seems that my point of view is not regarded highly by the OLO managers, all I can say as a historian and a wheat cockie, that in WA we must look ahead much more than simply relying on quarry economics.

As one right now with fifteen great grandkids mostly interested in farming the almost total reliance in WA on pitstock politics for our future, worries me greatly.

Well, this piece does not say much for the Australia Institute

Could this wise researcher really be dumb enough to believe this rubbish, or is he dumb enough to believe that he can con the average Aussie into believing it. What ever the case he is an absolute dill.

WA, & QLD have been swimming in money, although bl@@dy idiots in those state governments have made sure it has just afforded an explosion in public servants, rather than do too much useful.

David has happily the tax cuts, paid for by mining income.

I won't waste my time further, anyone who could write that ca4p could never understand.

I did not realize that the Coal Expansion was over.
Australian Companies are doing well overseas & going by what results I get when I type “coal mines developing in Australia,” in google search, there is no end of Companies Expanding. Jobs may be lost in the Productive Mines with cut backs in Most, but searching each one I find Anglo Coal is confident of giving sustainable returns to their investors which does not sound like Coal is finished. Anglo Coal is part of the Bigger Company, Anglo America. With a quick job search there are positions in Australia for those who wish to apply to that company.

“Australian coal development company Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) has started additional production-related drilling, as well as drilling to identify the site for the second decline shaft, on the farms neighbouring the company’s Mooiplaats coal project, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.”
http://paguntaka.org/2009/03/13/australian-coal-mining-development-company-coal-expands-mooiplaats-coal-mine-project/

Rio Tinto has 5 operating mines in Queensland.“Xstrata Coal is the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal and the fifth largest producer of hard coking coal,” it claims on the Companies Web Site.

According to abc.net.au , “Waratah Coal says it will proceed with the development of Australia's biggest thermal coal mine in Queensland's central-west.
The group has entered into a memorandum of understanding with one of China's leading industrial companies to develop the project. It involves six coal mines at Alpha in the state's central-west, and thousands of jobs.

CSIRO is developing a mining method that can take the larger coal seams far superior to the present underground long wall methods. Hardly the sound of a dying industry.
http://www.csiro.au/solutions/ps14c.html

I won’t spoil all your fun, you can go to the internet and search for yourself. I have left the work force & am paid a Centerlink Age Pension and yes, I have benefited from the boom with all the moneys going into government coffers..

I'm pleased to read that the mining industry contributes little to the Australian economy. Since it's significantly larger in total than our incoming international tourism industry, clearly tourism doesn't do much for the economy either, so we can close down both industries and improve our economy at the same time!
What a load of bulldust! The Australia Institute has sought to compartmentalise the mining industry in such a way that it shows mining to be of less value than is bleedingly obvious to anyone who lives in WA or Queensland outside of Brisbane. Any pseudo-economist can distort the truth with selectively chosen numbers if they wish to...the old story: lies, damned lies and statistics. The truth is that mining is a critically important and valuable part of our national economy and, without it, the current recession would be having far more serious impacts on unemployment and government income.