Crisis, what crisis? Australia’s economy is doing well compared with many in the world, page-62

I agree with much of what pinto, oldbull, verminski, and scotty have to say and think I can add something :
I have Swedish and German Aunts and cousins. They envy me for the climate, but wonder why we don't make anything in Australia, especially given out bountiful resources - I find it hard to explain - laziness perhaps, or why bother ?

Pinto is spot on - it starts with education. The culture is all wrong here. I did my first degree here (part time) free, and then followed that up with post grad quals - also part time, and also free. I just had to pay for the books. Kids today have massive HECS / HELP debts to climb over before they can think about starting a family or buying a house. We need to seriously subsidise the courses we want people trained in - starting with (imo) Engineering, Teaching, Medicine, Science , IT & Maths - with the necessary contractual limitations eg stay in OZ.

Then we need to incentivise manufacturing with some serious tax breaks. That does not mean assembly for a multinational. It does mean downstream processing of our raw materials. The pandemic really highlighted how dependent we are on imports.

Sweden is REALLY streets ahead of us both in technology and manufacturing . Their economy is one of the most competitive in the world, they are a global leader in recycling and decarbonisation.

It might surprise you to know that Sweden is quite rich in resources,, in particular battery minerals, though it does not have Norway's access to energy. Germany is also making significant progress in the battery / lithium space.

We have a huge opportunity