" As for our raw materials, I think, Australia ought to invest...

" As for our raw materials, I think, Australia ought to invest in vertical integration as far it is economically sensible to do so (not just because of some greenie agenda).

However, the main impediment to taking advantage of Australia's huge blessing of natural resources is that rather than people looking at the future and working backwards to work out how to get to the envisaged future and gain the maximum economic benefit in getting there, they are stuck in ideological partisan culture wars, thinking about how we have generated wealth in the past and that that is the only way forward..."

They are quite interesting and insightful comments PP.

It would be refreshing to try a fundamental change in how we think about business. Of course you don't want to cut of your nose to spite your face. There are plenty of examples where we simply can't compete on manufacturing for a variety of reasons. Not just labor costs.

However, we should try harder to not just be a giant farm and quarry. I think renewables is a real opportunity because of our resources. Clearly the world is now shifting to a low emission future. So, that levels the playing field somewhat on energy cost which gives Australia a good future advantage because of our renewable resources.

Imagine if we decided to make our Australian renewable energy profitless ? The idea being that we made it as cheaply as we could so that the cost to business was as low as it could be. Making stuff as close to the source of energy and material as possible.

This would enable more business opportunities to flourish. Particularly large automated factories making stuff for export.

It's a bit utopian I know but given that we are approaching an historical step change with regard to energy production. This provides a once in a century opportunity to do a bit of a reset on how we do business.