About a week ago the Economist ran a set of articles about Australia. No surprise that it gave thumbs down to our political leadership, dismissing Abbott as a tea party wannabe. Julia wasnt treated much better, but Keating received plaudits for opening up the economy.
It was interested that they compared Australia to California as it was some decades ago. That dream turned a bit sour, and Australias will too if we dont make hay while the sun shines on the mining industry. (cant quite work out these European keyboards, so apostrophes can be forgotten for now) The Economist says Australia could take the lead on renewable energy, but hasnt got the courage.
About 20 years ago, I explicitly described Australia as the last California, and referred to its potential to become a world leader in sustainability. That was for an ACT Labor party magazine, now long defunct. And if we dont act quickly, our hopes for the future will also fade: the article says we only have 30 years of iron ore left. And then what?
Gee that sounds great, we could be the last California.
We could be bankrupt, just like them. We could have over 12% unemployment.
We could have such crazy energy policies that we have to import a large percentage of our power from other states. Hang on, we have many of those crazy policies, just no other states to get power from when ours fails.
We could have our industries fleeing stupid policies to anywhere else that’s more industry friendly. Hang on, that’s another we have all ready done.
We could shut down our major farming areas to give the water to a little fish. Hang on, that’s pretty similar to the stupidity of our Murray Darling Commission.
That’s about enough stupid Californian policies for one day thanks.
When California dies, sometime soon, we won’t be far behind, even without any more stupidity.
Comment by Hasbeen — June 13, 2011 @ 1:46 am
thats right, we are following that pattern.
news about our accountability as a democracy notwithstanding (in Grahams blog) we have a long ways to go.
Comment by Ronda Jambe — June 15, 2011 @ 9:39 am