Loch Lomond

Right now WA is riding an economic boom.....however it (and all of Australia) is in a commodity driven environment. What will WA and the rest of Australia rely on when the energy and mineral resources dry up? I mean, when nothings left, or our Asian clients decide they no longer need what we have.
As far as I am aware their is no commercial export manufacturing in Australia.
Should we rely on tourism?
I'm interested in everyones thoughts

Cheers LL

FluffyTheCampfireSlayer

I don't think we need to worry about this in our life time!! Or should we?

arkon

Well the arab world spend huge amounts from thier oil on diversifiying thier industry to other sectors. Here it's all wasted. My money is on a world dominated by china and some of the Arab states, Australia will become just a desolate backwater as seen in Mad Max films.....Science fiction is not always that far away from fact.

Hutch

You say that like it'd be a bad thing.

I am the Nightrider. I'm a fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker, I am the roller, I am the out-of-controller!

Katsmajics other half !!!

I would rather be in a desolated backwater like Australia than in a really fooked place like the way the UK is going.

Luke I Amyofath

Whats your prediction on when all this will happen Mr Arkondamus ?

Will it be before you develop a backbone and go back to blighty, and whats the uk going to be like when all this happens down here.
Also, can I have the winning lotto numbers for 2009 for the uk lottery please.

MartinLuther

With all this talk about the mining boom I think people start to think that this is all that Australia does. The WA mining boom is just the icing on the cake it's not the whole economy (although the peeps in WA would like to think that).

On the mining front there is a lot of stuff to dig up and there are a lot of customers. As well as China, demand is starting to increase from India. These 2 countries represent something like one third of the world's population, that's a lot of customers, and the Indians like their gold.

Agriculture is still going fairly strong. It's been hit a bit by the drought but it's still bringing in the wonga.

Tourism brings in a great deal of money and will continue to do so. Australia does well at hosting major sporting events and will continue to do so. It wouldn't surprise me if someone in FFA was working on bringing the Soccer World to Aus.

Pharma seems to be a growth area.

And Aus is investing in the future. It's spending on roads and ports, although it is fair to say that the investment in ports should have started earlier as they are now unable to serve the current export needs. Aus has created the future fund which will pay for public service pensions in the future and superannuation will continue to build up wealth which is not only available for investment but should reduce the pension burden on the ageing population. Aus miners are now digging up stuff all over the world including China and India, they're not just limited to the resources found here.

One area where Aus should be investing but hasn't been is renewable energy. We've got loads of land, sea, sunshine and wind. We could become the world leaders in this technology but little Johnny Howard wanted to play catch-up with the big boys of nuclear. Not only is nuclear an environmentally stupid idea for Aus it's also economically stupid.

Luke I Amyofath

For decades in my memory Australia has shyed away from nuclear energy. In fact, the new submarines that oz navy is going to build arent even nuclear, even when it's the best energy source for subs.

There are over 8000 beaches around the coast, I for one wouldnt want to see any of them spoilt by giant concrete windmills, which arent exactly good for the environment when you consider what they are made of (steel reinforced concrete & aluminium)

MartinLuther

Johnny was very interested in it (I think he might have been in line for a back scratch from his mates in the industry). I'm surprised you missed all the talk about the nuke options. There was even talk of the Federal Govt overriding the Victorian anti-nuke laws.

I think it's not beyond the wit of man to come up with solutions that don't spoil the view.

NikiL

You want to wait that long??

Theres a sea turbine off the coast of Dorset which is remarkably unobtrusive, and with the coastline that Aus has it could be a good way forward. Bottom line with economics is that only economists really understand it, and IMHO it tends to be driven a lot by what the politicians want to happen. Its just that every now and again real people have an impact and thats when it goes TU.

Luke I Amyofath

I certainly hope so. I remember years ago the trouble when a nuclear powered sub wanted to dock in sydney, cant remember if it was a brit sub or not. Was it greenpeace causing the trouble I wonder ?

Swerv-o

All energy resource infrastructure requires some form of building or other, be it a windmill, cooling towers or a solar array. Sadly it seems impossible to please people, as nobody seems to want any of it near them.

That said, the interior of the country where there is lots of desert, sunshine and minimal people would make an excellent location for solar furnaces and collection arrays. The only problem then is the loss of efficiency in getting the electricity back to the cities where everybody is.

Personally I think windmills look quite graceful, but if memory serves me correctly, much or the Australian coastline shelves too quickly to be suitable for off shore wind farming.


S

sasbear

Me too

Possums

we'll have the pulp mill

spartacus

I picked up a sound bite when nuclear power qwas a subject of debate in the UK a little while ago.

Apparently, the energy delivered, in the form of electricity, by a nuclear power station during its operational lifetime, is far less than the energy required for its construction.