''As posted Australia has every possible competitive advantage even geography etc.''
being the driest continent on the planet aside from Antarctica is NOT an advantage
having an incredibly long coastline with a small population is NOT an advantage.
having a population who does NOT value classical education and certainly doesn't value research - so it's brightest end up heading overseas and many staying OS is 'definitely' NOT an advantage
the list is pretty long -
so, Australia does NOT have ''every possible competitive advantage''
but, it DOES have a lot of amazing advantages which most of it's competitors would cut off an arm or leg for
the tragedy is that they are such strong and in many cases - unique and almost unique - yet they are wasted on Ozzies
the culture in Oz is to have 'user pays' - which means that the politics of the land actually thinks that the individual is the benefactor of a real education - and hence, must pay -
pity about that - because the nation is always the greatest benefactor - and Oz - loses it's best - who often have to head overseas to get a real education - and if they do manage to get a start of an education in Oz - they then head overseas because there are not the opportunities in the backwater to progress
most of the best ------------- we lose ----- to the benefit of others
poooof - there goes the traction of those 'competitive advantages' - wasted
