Sorry Yabby - not quite true!

In short, the reason why we are still a farm and a mine is because of "Pig Iron Bob" (John Howard's hero) - who said we should grow it, dig it up or shear it off a sheep's back. This narrow and ignorant attitude persists today with out exception.

Example: You know that little company Nokia? Well...it would still be a fishing/timberlogging company without the Finnish government's positive support of the firm.

NO Australian government has EVER supported the R&D rhetoric they sprouted. That's why we have no high tech industries in Australia.
QED.

Does anybody believe that the resource boom will last for ever? Will the droughts that seem to be occurring more regularly reduce the amount of agricultural export? Should we be setting up a contingency plan? If we have the resources the ball is in our court. The natural resources that exist should be controlled by the government to ensure that the most amount of money is returned for there use, there once off use!!

Let’s take old growth logging for wood chip as an example. If the Governments selling price was higher in the first place, companies would have to value add in order to make the same profit. Thereby, bringing more money into the country for fewer resources used. If a company produces something it’s there business what they sell it for, but if its gifted to them like a natural one off resource, then I think it should be the governments job to ensure that the country is benefited the most it can be, after all they manage the resources for the owners (is that us?).

I am not sure the selling price of woodchip but I think it is about $10-20 per ton, while sawn hardwood is worth anywhere between $400 -$4000 per ton depending on quality and species. Yes there will always be wastage, and yes this can be chipped creating close to 100% log recovery at the maximum possible selling price. But hey if the logs are as good as free why bother!!

BTW Yabby....

There was a competitively-priced, Australian-manufactured laptop made in Australia in the late 80's; the Dulmont Magnum.

Even the silicon was made in Australia ! Imagine trying to do that now ! Sadly it's not possible. So have we gone forward or backward? Go figure.

Iluvatar, I remind you that the Dulmont Magnum had an Intel
microprocessor. Aussie made you say? What about ram chips?
HDD? So they put it in a box here? Clearly it was not a success
or the company would not have folded.

Yup, there are innovative companies here, just not enough.
The bionic ear, DBS seeding systems, Austal Ships, CSL, CAD
laser systems, etc. etc. What they export is based on their
IP.

Nokia? My present Nokia was designed in Finland, made in
China!

Nobody says that the resource boom has to last forever. Ah
pmikkels, first you want companies to explore for minerals,
find them, develop mines, take huge risks. Now you want the
Govt to control the lot! If you did that, how much foreign
investment do you think you would receive in future in
Australia? If Aus won't supply the minerals, buyers will
go elsewhere, its as simple as that.

Woodchips make about 160$ a tonne. Companies like Gunns
make wooden flooring etc. They will value add that timber
that is worth it, not that timber that isnt.

I remind you that miners pay royalties and taxes. You are
free to go out into the desert and risk your money to find
some minerals, if you think there are big quids in it. We
need more exploration.

Well Yabby, you are well informed !

Re: the Dulmont Magnum

In fact all components, where practical and commercially sensible. were sources from local manufacturers. Of course it made no sense to purchase the main processor and memory, since they weren't manufactured here anyway. The main I/O processor was designed by a team at UNSW and built as part of a multi-project chip at AWA Microelectronics fab. plant at North Ryde.
So, my main point was that the state of the art was used in its design and construction in Australia! This is no longer possible.

Re: Nokia. You missed my point.
Don't care where your Nokia handset is manufactured. The IP (and profits) remain in Finland.

NO hightech, startup companies thrive without their own domestic government support. Our's has never given that.

Forget the extractive industries! They are intrinsically parasitic, low tech and wasteful. Doesn't take much intelligence to dig a a hole ! What will they do when all the trees are felled and all the oil/coal/minerals are gone?

Australia's support for the knowledge industries is almost totally absent. (Oh well, I guess that is OK so long as the beer is cold and the footy is playing! duoh!)

Illuvatar I would go so far as to say this government is hell bent on destroying the knowledge nation,

- offshoring all government IT work, even when government departments are world's best practice or security of data can't be guaranteed
- spending less money on education, even though education is the fourth largest export earner, ahead of wool
- questioning the quality of our educators, when clearly there is a surplus of available teachers in some states. Would this have anything to do with breaking teacher unions?
- making it difficult to access research funding unless the research has a clear commercial benefit. Why doesn't the coal industry pay for its own research? Why starve research into solar technology?