My latetest stint in the Australian film industry has opened my eyes to an interesting flurry of dreams, aspirations, and a business world that is in a recession.

It hit me that we may be looking at the wrong countries for our exports.

Some of the writers and directors have been lamenting about how quiet things are, and how no one in the US is interested in our films at the moment. Apparently, you either need outback, gum trees or the occasional crocadile or strange mammal. They are not interested in our cities, and least of all are they interested in our culture, lives, or our dull existances in suburbia.

Yet this is where most of us live. "What do we do"? the writers and directors parrot, as they have been for a few years. Our country is so dull, nothing is happening, the action is all in New Zealand.

Of course, this is not true at all. Our culture, urban lives and blandness are the greatest sellers of them all. Just that the market is not the USA.

The UK loves Neighbours, Home and Away, some of our cop shows and nearly all of our soapies. They love the innocence, quirkiness, yet even boldness in ordinary life settings. The world loves watching us. Most countries, except the USA.

Why on Earth do we even bother trying to export this culture to a country that has no interest in us?

Could this be also true in tourism, sports promotion and marketing?

In tourism we do so much better selling Australia to the UK, Europe, Japan, China and the rest of Australia than America. The tourists that come here don't just come here either, they always return and love our cities because they are relaxed, easygoing and generally people can be friendly.

When you see American tourists as I often do walking to Kings Cross train station (the only train station in this district), "where are all the Starbucks coffee shops? Where are the fashion shops? Why do they dress so cheap? Is that an Aborigine? eeu! Why are they so rude? Why do they keep these old buildings? Whinge whinge whinge, and so on. They just refuse to see the uniqueness of the place that really doesn't want to be that American.

The British and European tourists are usually more self sufficient and try to find out where to hire an old bomb to drive around in, or how many sites they can discover, and see as much as they can. They like the place for what it is, not for how "un-American" it is. We like that.

The Asian tourists usually have their holidays planned for them and whiz around in those white air conditioned busses to the flashy places, and say only in 4-5 star hotels. We like them too; they spend plenty of money on the strangest things and don't seem to complain. They don't expect the place to be Asian. It’s probably a relief for them to see something different.

Then in the US, we have "outback" steakhouses. There is nothing Australian about the food, we don't eat like that at all. They chuck in a few Australian icons and they are All-American owned using some Paul Hogan slogans. Their customers don't care if its authentically Australian or not, they just want their French Fries the way they always have it, their Texas stakes, the way they do it, and their "shrimp".

Exports to the US are much lower than exports to Asia, Europe and even Africa / the Middle East. Why do we even bother?

Considering Australia just recorded its worst trade deficit since 1974, I think it's fair to say that Australia is in desperate need of new export markets, or at least a major rethink of our approach to trade. Australia's global uncompetitiveness is creating a legacy of lower growth and higher debt.

According to AusBuy:

"Recently, global market research company GMI Inc together with Simon Anholt conducted a survey to identify the Nation Brands Index. Each quarter Anholt-GMI will poll 18,000 consumers worldwide on their perceptions of the cultural, political, commercial and human assets, investment potential and tourist appeal of many countries. The information gathered then gives a clear indication of a nations “brand power.

This research was conducted in August when Australia was ranked number one."

Why have we failed so miserably to capitalise on such a reputation? Why don't we have a competitive export-orientated economy?

I sometimes think that the strategy for tourism is back to front. We have cheap Jetstar Flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to Asia. These can be promoted more as the big cities are friendlier places for them. Cairns is not that special when you live just over the equator.

Cairns and the Islands needs to be opened as a direct flight destination from Europe and the US and Canada. They may not be as interested in our cities at all, many want to see the barrier reef, the natural forests and the tropics in their winter. Direct flights to Cairns makes more sense for them than it does for Asian tourists as it makes a non stop flight shorter by about 4 hours, after a long flight, and they are more likely to like the peace and quiet at the destination with other people more likely to speak English.

Sydney has more artists per capita than anywhere else. How do we make this workforce a vaible industry to make money? We did well in the Olympics. More tax incentives for film? Or do we need yet more festivals?

Of course India is the new frontier in export. What could we sell there? Have we reached our potential? Why not?

We could be selling Warratahs to China, but Israel took the market first with our native plants grown in Israel.

We could be selling more exotic cut flowers overseas. These are tiny suggestions, but we seem to miss so many opportuntities when people only see the US or UK because we all speak English. Other countries also speak English and there is no reason we can't do business with them.

"Why don't we have a competitive export-orientated economy? "

Quite simple, because everything is loaded against exporters,
so lots simply don't bother, its easier to make a quid on
the home market.

To export and compete, you need a comparative advantage.
We have lots of those, resources, cheap land, lots of
sunshine etc, a reasonably stable political and economic
environment.

On the other hand we tax exporters heavily, then turn around
and give them marketing grants. Duh. Remove some of the
taxes and charges on exports, like payroll tax, insurance
tax and others. Otherwise lots of people simply won't bother
and it will only be when the Aussie peso really crashes, that
people will start to value exports. At present they don't.

Ok here is a suggestion of good federal policy for you:

Can all export marketing grants, alot of them are pissed
up against walls and wasted.

Offer a federal rebate to manufacturing and agricultural
exporters, for state payroll, insurance and other taxes that
they have paid. Say a company exports 75% of production,
their rebate would be 75% etc.

There is no need to include mining, they are thriving
anyhow.

Bingo, you have made a huge difference to exporters being
more competitive in the global economy, rather then tying
their hands behind their backs with taxes, so saying "bugger
it, we'll do it in China" etc.

The result is what you want, a more export focussed economy
and more local exmployment.

Interesting idea Yabby. Would such a rebate be seen as a subsidy. Under most trade agreements that we are locked into, we are not allowed to have trade subsidies as it is "uncompetitive" according to the agreements.

I'm not sure of the terminology whether or not a tax rebate could be seen as a trade subsidy. It would be a good loophole if we could get away with it.

I can't see why it should be seen as a subsidy. Most of those
taxes are in fact taxes that don't apply in other countries.
How many countries tax employment? Thats what say payroll
tax effectively is. Thats fine if you are say Westpac or
similar, you just pass your costs on. But if you are competing
on a world market, its not fine, IMHO its not accectable,
so don't be amazed when people don't bother exporting
from Australia

I completely agree with you Yabby. It would actually be relatively simple to administer - self assess with audits, like most other tax rebates (now called offsets, just to keep another public servant in a job). Saintfletcher, to my mind, a rebate/offset, is less likely to be seen as a subsidy than a grant. The theory behind it would be the same as not levying GST on exports - dont impose an internal tax on external consumers. It would no doubt encourage more producers into exporting, only helping our current account (which is in dire need of help).

Yabby said: "Otherwise lots of people simply won't bother and it will only be when the Aussie peso really crashes, that people will start to value exports. At present they don't."

Sadly, it seems that nothing short of a credit crunch will be able to rebalance Australia towards more exports.

Total debt in the Australian economy is now about 152% of GDP and growing. Most of that debt has been used to finance the national real estate bubble, rather than new export industries needed to actually service our ballooning foreign liabilities. When asked about Australia's external imbalances, Howard and Costello take a line from Joh Bjelke-Peterson. "Now don't you worry about that," they say. "The debt simply reflects private sector business decisions...it's all serviceable." The worsening trade figures suggest otherwise.

Yabby

Good Idea

Here is another to add to it.

Austrade to be run by inderpendant public group free from the thumbs of Trade Ministers.

Assist Australian Farmers to work direct with overseas contacts and put AQIS under the eye of the public as well

No more ok!s over the phones for Halal accreditations and the many other its ok I will scratch your back if you scratch mine approach.

Let everybody promote their ideas through Austrade and whoever is interested can contact the person who placed the adds through Austrade and MLA and all the other reps of different industries.