Chapter 10 : The Politics

If you want your political party to keep getting re-elected you have to show the population that your economy is growing and that, as a result, life will get better for voters. In New Zealand, the progressives could not improve productivity in their country, so they lost the next election despite Ardern's high profile and many achievements.

As the opposition leader who won the election said, "It's hard to get an extra litre of milk out of a cow". He was referring to the fact that New Zealand has two main industries: agriculture and tourism. He won the election because he promised higher productivity and more efficiency, mainly through less Government spending. This means he will probably just cut expenses, which will cut fat and possibly some muscle as well. It's the same old cycle over and over again.

And to make the GDP grow artificially, New Zealand has immigration. It's a kind of industry that only countries with good civil rights and the rule of law can offer. But that creates another problem: sky-high housing prices. We have the same problem here. It's called the "Housing Affordability Crisis".

We can obtain growth through investment in the science, technology, and engineering advances needed to terraform our land. When Europeans first came to Australia, they treated the land in ignorant ways. Surely by now, they know better. Let's not cut down every tree, let's not over-graze the land. Let's not turn creeks and waterways into drains. Let's bring desalinated water inland and gradually see gains in our GDP. As the land is seen by the investment community to improve, GDP will continue to grow at an accelerating rate. And this is a business model that won't run out of steam because our land is so vast. It’s not a Ponzi real estate scheme. Real benefits will result. Productivity will increase. The improved land will keep producing forever if maintained. Any political party that grabs this development model and runs with it will have a "Menzies" type era term in office. 

So, turning unproductive land into highly productive land is a winning political and economic formula. Our farmers know how to grab the opportunity. It's just the enormous risk they have had to endure of variable weather conditions, which have been holding them back. 

The Australian agriculture sector is already large and highly efficient. We can compete on the world stage. This is sometimes difficult in Australia as the Australian dollar fluctuates. We have such a large mining sector, and prices for minerals vary greatly. If the Australian dollar is too high because the mining sector is doing well, then other exports we sell will be too expensive and internationally uncompetitive. 

I know we need a more complex economy in Australia,  but that won't happen unless you take taxes from the mining sector in a time-sensitive way, and even from the agriculture sector at some future date. Perhaps a windfall tax of some kind. That money is used to create an economy-protective shell around technology start-ups here in Australia. So if the Australian dollar goes up, fragile manufacturers with great promise will be subsidized with money from the windfall taxes. This is pretty basic stuff. Why haven't our Governments done this already? What's wrong with the politicians in Australia? 

Think of the last Federal election here in Australia. The Liberals were destroyed. This country is surrounded by problems, and they couldn't convince the Australian public that they had any idea about how to solve them. Nor did they even attempt to sell their vision of the future of Australia because they don't have one. You won't win an election in Australia if you just want the job. You have to have a vision of what Australia could be in the future, and you have to believe in it. Otherwise you will get your arse handed to you as the Liberals did in the 2025 election.