Have you even given thought to just where we may find ourselves, post the coal/iron ore mining boom.

At present these industries are providing millions, if not billions of dollars to our economy, by way of spendings from employees and contractors etc.

Once gone, we will be out there trying to not only repay the huge debt we now have, but we will also be trying to fund the dreams of a forgotten government, and that's assuming the illegals debacle has been contained.

Brace yourselves, is say!

Sheep used to be the old economic savior, now it is mining.
You pose a good question what will happen when other countries are cheaper or we run out of what the world wants?

For Nauru it used to be super phosphate now there economy is looking after economic invaders for Australia.

Whatever the answer we need politicians to start doing something now.

Take away the word boom and mining will continue.
And in doing that continue to contribute to our country.
Surely few of us thought the boom would go on forever.
We see every thing rise and fall, in its journey prices paid for wool wheat all our farm out put both peaks and falls.
The sky is not falling we are not doomed.
That old furpy maker Hanrerhan of the farmers poem will however not lay down

Of course you're right Belly, that many of us saw the mining boom as a bonus to be grabbed, & held tightly, while it lasted.

Unfortunately Rudd & Gillard saw it as their reelection slush fund to fritter away, [it & much more] buying back the votes their idiot policies were loosing.

Now as the boom of building new mines fades, we are in trouble.

Not only that, but the foreign exchange earned by the exports, the most important part of mining, is going to diminish with falling volumes & perhaps prices, as other mining countries come on line.

We always had a balance of trade problem, even in the days when we manufactured most of our cars, appliances, & equipment. Having abandoned manufacture, with mining reduced, tourism killed by the dollar value, no foreign exchange to pay for imports, & rising unemployment we are heading for big trouble.

We had better start harvesting our own oil, & converting the gas we now wont sell to automotive fuel, to save some imports, & then hope for the next "manna from heaven" to keep the lucky country lucky. We don't seem to be able to do it for ourselves.

Towards the end of WW2 Chifley and his cabinet decided that infrastructure and productive industries needed to expand to provide employmenty for returning servicemen and the refugees likely from a devestated Europe.

The Snowy scheme was started as was other major other infrastructure such as power plants and the expansion of communications. Factory development was encouraged for the production of cars, trucks, trains and other rolling stock, and whitegoods etc. Apart from a blip under Menzies in the early sisties Australia enjoyed a properous 25 years.

Metal production and industrial production is essential for security purposes yet we have lost most of the industries which provide the base load for the steel industry (white goods, fabrication, rolling stock, vehicles). The USA was so successful in WW2 because of its stock of machine tools and factories. Some Ford Motor plants were converted to producing one Liberator, four engine bomber, every hour.

Once the steel industry has no base load we will be back to being boundary riders on the squatter's fences, a situation I first described at AC45 at the Australian Administrative Staff College in 1972. Then, I was arguing that adequate tariffs were needed to ensure continuation of essential industries. What has changed?

Now too many people are employed in such non-industries as banking and superannuation.

The problems of the future cannot be solved by having a pile of funds. They can only be solved by having a sustainable current account position, which includes have other assets, much like Norway does, as replacements for the natural assets now being exported, and by having the infrastructure and the industries that can efficiently supply the goods and essential services necessary at that future time.

Foyle, I agree that loosing our manufacturing is leaving ourselves vulnerable in the event of us being invaded, hostile invasion that is.

Your comment about banking and super is also spot on, and when you add to that those who simply buy and sell, along with those who provide a service only, where are we headed in 20/30 years from now.

Belly, while I accept your belief that the sky is not falling in, and taking in to account where we are now, where we came from (just five plus years ago) and where we are heading, tell me, at what point will the sky fall in in your view, as I feel the signs are there now, as we must remember, this huge debt has been accumulated during the mining boom, so assuming we can't stop the boats, how on earth are we going to continue funding this, along with Gillards unfunded dreams?

We must also remember that Mr Swan continually reminds us that he has created some 800,000 jobs, again, during the mining boom.

Of cause he fails to acknowledge the job losses (which must be more than created) so assuming that trend continues, where are the jobs going to come from without mining.

Now you say it's just an anomaly, like wool ect, but just remember, our coal and iron ore customers have not found an alternative to these, rather, they have found an alternative supplier, and that is surely cause for concern, don't you think!

The miners have been warning for years now about becoming anti competetive, and labor's response was a great big tax on carbon and minerals, just two of the reasons why they have run their race, and a very costly one at that.