What New Industry for OZ ?

[norm]

After Ving's topic on desalination, I thought of one that has always been of interest to me and that is what leading edge industry can Australia initiate/startup to make us the leaders in.
Given that all but most manufacturing is now pretty much taken over by China and with South Korea initiating a committment to spend billions of dollars for the next 10yrs to be leaders in Biomedical sciences/engineering, India being the IT Outsourcing hub what is the future for Australia?

Does our current government have the foresight to pour money into R&D or are they just concerned about their 4 yr term. I raise this topic cause it affects our future and our childrens future in the years to come. I certainly don't want this great country of ours to head towards a banana republic. Is it too late for us to take grasp of something, nuture it, be the best at it, sell it to the rest of the world and most importantly - keep it here.
Some of my ideas include maybe management of nuclear waste, Aerospace flights to the general public, R & D on material science, IT engineering of some sort (AI) etc. The creation of such a new industry would have enormous benefits both financially and also the sustainability of this country.

[fringe_dweller]

Originally Posted by norm

Some of my ideas include maybe management of nuclear waste,

depends were you want to dump it? let me take a guess lol. I see you live in Sydney NSW, we find it very amusing here in SA, to say the least, that the eastern states want(ed/s) us to be the nuke waste depository for the entire world.

that looks very neat on paper, but in reality aus has a clean green image in regard to exported food especially. You would be playing around with that unique, maybe irreplacible? selling point, just from an image point of view straight away (even if it is in the remote desert somewhere, it still has to be transported to the location through all sorts of areas, from all directions, even sometimes trucked in probably).

In SA's case, its seafood and the barossa ect. wine regions. I'm sure you could find those sort of examples anywhere in oz/most places.
which i think has also been NZ's reasoning behind their anti-nuke stance?

But i find it interesting that we are tolerant of deisel fumes, which are known to contain two of the most carcinogenic substances know to man, yet freak out about nuke plants. to much simpsons?

As for ozzie manufacturing and globalisation, I wonder if the then keating labour gov, envisaged the great economic dragon china would become, when we bravely began lowering the car tariffs gradually heading towards the 2010? zero tariffs on cars. but ozzies like japanese/european cars too much now too go back either?.
But then I have heard John howard say in a speech how much the cheap supply of everything to ozzie busnisess's we have now from china, has actually made/saved a lot of money for aus companies - in the 100's of millions at least? not to mention the insatiable thirst for raw materials and the resources boom happening now in the other direction.
all it would take is to raise them back and we would have a car industry future again, at least. But that aint gonna happen, and probably shouldnt? other industries would suffer now I suppose, too late?
not to mention the very interesting situation with the ballooning working visa workers force (who even take jobs in area's of low unemployment? in their hundreds and who are not protected by any industrial laws or acts and receive low wages by our standards - very strange days, and soon they can be unskilled even. what the?
were gonna have a slave army?
anyway seems everything very heated up - interesting times indeed!
EDIT: should thrown the acronym NIMBY in there somewhere about the waste dump

[C.]

There was a very interesting story on SBS-Dateline tonight about the use of ethanol as a replacement fuel in Brazil. This is an industry we could embrace. The Brazillians have done all the work, the cars are on the road. We could be producing a replaceable fuel and exporting it. "Ford, in Indonesia, this year, will start producing 150,000 flex engines", a nice close ready market. It would revive the sugar cane industry, create a new fuel industry, give us cheaper fuel and a much needed export. Why are we so far behind? Or am I missing something?

[avandonk]

As someone who has spent all his working life at the forefront of science for Australia, only to see the direct Government funding and Tax rebates for private industry investment in R&D diminish year by year, I have grave reservations about our long term future as vibrant knowledge based society. The return that investment in R&D has provided has historically been in Australia about five to seven dollars for each dollar invested. The numbers are similar for the US and UK.

The amounts of money saved or generated by advances in medical technology and agriculture to name two examples are even harder quantify. But they are greater than than what we know.

When they start exporting CEO jobs overseas as they are the last ones left with a meaningful job (the same CEO's have sent all the other jobs overseas already) then we have hit rock bottom. If the CEO's cant see that, we are all doomed. I would really like a job where I could get millions and all I have to do is destroy the jobs of others. Notice I have not had one original idea!

We cannot compete with huge mass production countries with near poverty wages irregardless of what they produce. We have to fill the niche markets with high value adding to the products we can produce competitively. We cannot go on selling our assets ie minerals and energy at bargain basement prices.

What will your great grandchildren say when they are are born into a country with no oil, no natural gas, no soil, no forests, no good water, no fish, no iron ore etc etc.

I feel like the man falling off a 100 storey building, so far so good!

Bert

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

What about using an existing infrastructure and modifying it to supply one of the fastest growing demands in the world. Chemical free foods (I teach horticulture so I am NOT going to go down that old banana of so called "Organic" foods" )

There are millions of people in the developed countries of the world who are prepared to pay an arm and a leg for chemical free/reduced foods. The belief that we cannot produce enough food to feed ourselves without chemicals is a complete and utter furfy. It has been shown time and again that small hold intensive farms can be fully sustainable and productive without the excessive use of chemical applications, both herbicide and pesticide, and be more profitable ha for ha compared to broad acre farming. To be effective it requires a paradigm shift in thinking about crop production and retraining in the ways of sustainable agriculture.

We have the land, we have the tools and we have the personpower. Why then are communities abandoning the land in record numbers. A serious effort by our so called powers that be to support farms that are prepared to take the challenge rather than support the current outdated and destructive farming practices (that really haven't changed in the past hundred years) would be funds far more productively spent.






"Have soapbox will travel"

[RB (Andrew)]

I totally agree with you Paul.
It's so sad to see "communities abandoning the land in record numbers".

[ving (David)]

we do have an image though... as a destination. sure its not something we physically manufacture but our tourist industry is good and could be made better.
maybe this is the answer?

[fringe_dweller]

cant we all just work in admin/bureaucracy? 5 admin ppl to evry actual worker isnt it!
check out this site - look at economy to see how we operate at present the trade deficit growth is very interesting indeed
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/...k/geos/as.html
I understand all the great points made, but of all those great revenue/coffers filling idea's, I dont see many that actually employ thousands of people en masse - like manufacturing does, ie cars EDIT: I note their is now 54 different makes of cars now available in oz - more than in the US! it really is the age of choice remember when it was just ford or holden?
mining and agriculture while generating royalties and revenue, employ less and less people all the time
I agree Bert - we are NEVER EVER going to compete with countries who's wages at best atm are about 60 au cents an hour, no matter what anybody tells us

[stinky]

I like the idea of ethanol production, we have the capacity. I like the idea of small acre farming.

But it brings us back to the issue of water - that's the limiting factor. The other issue is labour - we can't even raise enough people to harvest our citrus crops let alone extend agricultural practices.

So something that would thrive in wide open spaces with no large need of water - what about a penal colony in the deep centre. It seems quite fashionable to detain people these days, and certainly to have the colonies run by private enterprise. We could accept millions from other countries and the seabord population would have on-going employment supporting these 'penal islands'. And unlike storing nuclear waste we wouldn't be leaving an unhealthy legacy for the generations to come (but if you don't consider that true just consider what Australia is today!)

[ving (David)]

the problem stinky with citrus crops is that poeple dont want to harvest them....
but i am not going down that road, partly cause its way OT

[fringe_dweller]

Originally Posted by ving

the problem stinky with citrus crops is that poeple dont want to harvest them....

maybe if there wasnt so many horror stories of ripp offs by the unregulated unscrupulous growers, and it wasnt a gypsy life style with no hope of getting a home loan coz its casual/seasonal ect. ect. that wouldnt be a problem with getting people.
anyway ving the citrus growers here are all pulling up there groves coz of the cheap south american imports undercutting them, good ol' globalisation and competition/free market rules again the consumer is the winner tho?

[stinky]

If it's not a good idea to use the inmates of a penitentiary then serious consideration should be given to guest workers. There's a great demand from our island nieghbours for the opportunity to come and work for a few months.

I see nothing wrong with guest workers coming - working at the minimum wage, our crops are picked and they go home with some funds they would never have had. Perhaps then we can compete. NOBODY wins when the crops stay on the trees.

[fringe_dweller]

Originally Posted by stinky

If it's not a good idea to use the inmates of a penitentiary then serious consideration should be given to guest workers. There's a great demand from our island nieghbours for the opportunity to come and work for a few months.

I see nothing wrong with guest workers coming - working at the minimum wage, our crops are picked and they go home with some funds they would never have had. Perhaps then we can compete. NOBODY wins when the crops stay on the trees.

hehe guest slaves.. i mean workers.. could do all the dirty work we dont want to do (just like robots were supposed to be doing by now??? ) (they won't be devalueing existing local jobs? and breaking the old ozzie ethos of a fair go for all) just like the underclass of illegal aliens do in the U.S. and underpin the whole economy (also as does oz/NZ backpackers do in the UK hehe)- closer and closer we move.
lol yer the private gulag biz has already done well, and probably will continue too expand?, theres to many people walking around the streets now anyway?
we could go back to digging out the iron ore with shovels and picks, wheelbarrows , that would create a few jobs?
they say the big growth industries in the near future is retirement homes and funeral directors?
maybe i will just get work with a right wing facist think tank - thats a growth industry no?
i thoroughly recommend the aussie movie 'the honourable wally norman' which kinda touches on this subject,.. plot:the local meatworks gets closed down in a country town, and the gumment wants the 40 and 50 yr old aussie lifelong meatworkers to retrain for the IT industry RFLMAO! these prats wanted this country town to instantly become a new silicon valley IT hub hehe, familiar?

anyway the damn working class are revolting, and are in need of a damn good thrashing! the cheek!

[norm]

I can't help but feel a lot of scepticism and cynicism on this topic . That said, I too feel the same.

FTA - now thats a great 3 letter acronism. How the hell does our government think that we could even compete when the is no level playing field in the 1st place.

Just in the last 72 hrs Qantas is on the verge of scrapping its aircraft maintenance and shipping it to China or Indonesia. When is enough enough?