One of the joys of returning to Australia is the experience of observing the priorities that beset Australians, locked away in our corner of the world.
While the world grapples with all manner of catastrophes, both natural and government-induced, four initial impressions overwhelmed me:
- Australia was basking in the glory of our Wayne Swan being nominated by Euromoney magazine as Finance Minister of the Year (possibly nominated by the National Bank of Greece?) — more on that later.
- In Canberra, the city was abuzz with delegates to a Breast Conference who were contemplating and defining the two roles of the female breast—namely, as a source of food or as a ‘sexual organ’.
- In Western Australia, where we now produce 46% of Australia’s exports, the main news was the multiple meetings being held to seek permission to kill a shark deemed responsible for the most recent of the three fatal attacks on swimmers over the previous 7 weeks.
- Of interest also was the publicity surrounding our Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (The Hon. Kevin Rudd) now working for several African nations, encouraging Australian miners and explorers to invest and develop new mines in Africa, to compete against Australia’s mining industry.
Australian mineral explorers have already figured out that it’s too difficult ‘getting started’ in Australia due to land access and regulatory impediments and approximately 84% of their exploration budget is already being spent out of Australia.
How long do we expect to be the lucky country?
Well, back to the World’s Greatest Finance Minister. Let’s look at the basis for these claims. Yes, the Australian economy is in reasonably good order at the moment, in spite of the Australian Federal Government and its Treasurer. Its respectable condition lies with our three previous governments — one Liberal and two Labor. The Hawke/Keating governments (Labor) got the supply side of our economy in good shape and the Howard government (Liberal) eliminated our governmental budgetary problems. So, we are still living on the fat generated by the three previous good governments.
It’s just as Margaret Thatcher said: “Socialism works only until you run out of other people’s money.”