Correction:
The Australian Defence budget for 2018 is $36.4 billion & DVA $11 billion ; Total $47.4 billion.
This is without the forward budget over the next 15 years of $300 billion for warships, subs & warplanes.
Just imagine what $300 billion could do in:
-buying back some of the farm, like Indonesia
-secondary processing of minerals like Indonesia
-connecting the Pilbara with the central Qld coalfields by rail
This would diversify our trade away from China , improve our balance of trade
and potentially make Aus one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
We have the cheapest coal, iron ore & base metals in the world and all we need is a Government that leads the market,
not follows it. Just have a look at what the post WW2 Governments did in Germany, Japan , Korea and now China
positioning their economies to be world leaders while we scratch our proverbials and follow the market.
