Mate, to understand the differences between Aussie Shires with shrinking ecomomic prospects and those of China with booming economic prospects you will have to read: "The Making of a Superpower" by Yi Wen from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis wherein in summary he says:
The success of the Deng industrial revolution in China over the past 30 years is mostly due to Local Government leadership in organising and provisioning Town/Villiage enterprises to evolve from agrarian subsistance to globally competitive businesses. This replaces the slow mercantilist evolution in Western Europe and early USA industrial development.
In essence China compacted 300 years of Western Industrial development into 30 years.
This Chinese local Government role is the opposite of what we have ; in China it is the engine of rural and regional development while here it is a handbrake!
We have already rejected China's OBI which part of is introducing this Chinese model to struggling agrarian communities who do not have the wherewithal to develop and advance. Whether right or wrong, our Government has put ideology before economic development IMO. It will be interesting to see how Indonesia develops over the next decade given that it now part of China's OBI program. As they say in science, everything is data dependant!
Can we do the same?. IMO we can provided we have the right national, state and local government leadership. Our current politicians are unlikely to go that route because they owe their current political power and private wealth to the status quo and bugger Australia's economic prospects!
