Our commodity wealth sustains it. And this then flows into the rest of the economy. You will find that countries with big manufacturing bases have few commodity exports. Japan for example inports most of their food, plus everything else, but to pay for it they must trun it into stuff to sell.
The fact that mining employs so few people is irrelevant. It's a good thing. We do have the worlds highest wages, so any industry to be globally competetive needs wages to be a small part of it. So that's mining. It's also why broadacre agriculture is globally competative here, as it employs hardly anyone as well.
We also have a dieing manufacturing industy. So workers are getting less and less there.
So if you are not employed in primary industry, as in mining and agriculture. And if you are not employed in secondary industry, as in manufacturing, then that means you employed in services. And so that's where most people work, services, and this will increase further as primary industries get ever more effeicient and manufacturing moves to countries with low wages.
It all works while there is a commodity boom. End the commodity boom and we are in deep trouble. Australia can sustain most people working in services while commodities are worth what they are now.
