Bonmot, Ms Gillard is out there right now, talking up the economy.

What she, and in fact all labor supporters simply won't acknowledge, is that if you do a very simple exercise and take away WA and mining, we are in recession.

How on earth is that getting the message?

In fact, they are worse than not getting the message, they are in fact providing anyone who is gullible enough to believe them, with false hope.

Ludwig, I hold the view that we should be dealing with carbon, as much as trying to reduce it.

Simply reducing it comes with the risk of damaging our already fragile economy, as there is no doubt, given the latest figures, that we are 120% reliant on mining and WA.

So carbon storage should be a priority.

Rethinking the way we build, by using more timber and less steel.

Giving incentives to raise houses, thus using timber floors, rather than concrete.

Using timber cladding, or better still, bamboo.

All forms of timber store carbon, we should also be looking heavily into the platation and value adding of bamboo for building, as bamboo exhaubes about six times the carbon as timber.

Once the carbon is captured, then the timber/bamboo used to build with, it's stored.

We are about to produce billions of liters of CSG water, why not use it to grow bamboo in the same areas as the water is produced, with is predominately poor grade land.

Yep,

Some want to be progressive and promote the economy.

Others want to be regressive and talk down the economy.

Did the butcher read or understand the article?

http://tinyurl.com/merchants-of-doom

Obviously not.

Bonmot, while I may appear negative, I prefer to think I am a realist.

Have you actually looked at the numbers state by state.

WA had huge growth at 8%, while QLD, even with it's mining fell by 0.8%.

As I said before, take away WA and mining, there's not much left to crow about is there!

Dear butcher,

“As I said before, take away WA and mining, there's not much left to crow about is there!”

The fact is that WA with all its expertise with a shovel is only fourth behind NSW, Victoria and Queensland in state GDP. It is not even half that of NSW and it has a hell of a long way to catch up even the third on the list Queensland.

WA is about the size of Algeria and has a similar GDP.

Yet we seem prepared to put the manufacturing and other GDP producing enterprises of the Eastern seaboard at risk to bow down and deify a few WA miners.

Sheer stupidity.

Csteel, it's called costs.

Our manufacturing simply can't compete.

Meanwhile, we continue to prop up a car industry that is simply dying. The cash splash will simply delay it's death.

Government must step in and make employing cheaper, and easier.

Now I am not suggesting cutting wages, but they, along with the cost of compliance make doing profitable business here next to impossible.

What I'm saying is that governments must provide welfare, not businesses and they must cut through the red tape that is damaging productivity.

Hi C. Steele,

It's not a matter or either/or - either manufacturing OR mining. Growth in one sector may have little or nothing to do with that in another: growth in both is possible simultaneously.

Just trying to be helpful :)

Cheers,

Joe