Chapter 1 : The Vision

 If I had a vision of what I think Australia would look like in future years then this is what I would see. And think about this…. You always hear about the rise of China, or the rise of India, or the rise of Africa. You never hear anyone talk about the rise of Australia. Well, maybe we should think about it ourselves. After all, no one else is going to think about it.

I have hope for change. There will be friction. There always is. But there will be unbelieveable pain if we don't change. Also, we are not a big nation with massive bureaucracies that fight change. Well I hope so anyway. Look at the way the world is headed. We need to prepare. AUKUS is a feeble attempt at preparation. But it shows an awareness that we are heading into a dangerous period of history. 

Australians will realise that without ready and economical access to water in all parts of Australia, this country will not realise its true potential. If you look at how civilisations have grown and developed throughout human history, they have only ever done so in areas of favourable climatic and environmental conditions. So reliable access to clean water was essential. In the past that meant humans needed to go where Mother Nature provided such conditions. 

I believe we are now entering a time in human development where we will be able to change the environment sustainably to provide favourable human habitation anywhere in this country. And I provide a possible argument, imagining what progress toward that vision might look like over the next 50 or so years in Australia. 

We Australians can compare ourselves to the USA and see that whilst the US can support 350 million people with approximately the same-sized country and a similar early history, we only have 28 million people in 2024. The USA is a superpower with a GDP of $20 trillion US, and we are a small player with a GDP of approximately $1.3 trillion US. We are at the end of the Earth, and we are dependent on the USA for our defence. And before the US, Great Britain protected our surrounding seas. Unfortunately, many in Australia take this for granted because that protection has always been there in living memory. But what if the next superpower is not friendly to us? And look at the USA under Donald Trump. Can anyone rely on the USA for security anymore? 

The similarities between Australia's development and that of the USA diverge, in my opinion, because of water. We don't have much (this continent is 70% arid, i.e. less than 250mm of rainfall per annum), and we haven't set our minds seriously to fixing that situation. We must realise that without fresh water, there is no life. When Australians begin to realise that, then and only then, will we make water our priority in the development of this nation. We've thought of a few ideas in the past, but then realised that those ideas were duds! So we kinda gave up! Politicitians think the future of Australia is all about politics. It's not. It's all about physics. 

Israel is a younger country than Australia. They have made water a top priority since their inception. They survive with just 3% of all the water they use being rainwater. They now have a surplus of water and are exporting it. They even use water and water technology as the backbone of their peace treaties with their immediate neighbours in Jordan. I don't think Jordan could break away from Israel even if they wanted to. Though with the present chaos regarding the Gaza Strip in 2025, I think we may test that theory.

Discussions should start amongst Australians and be uppermost in our minds all the time about how to resolve this water scarcity issue. The tone of the discussion shouldn't be “Well that’s the way it is and nothing can be done about it" or “It can’t be done” or “It will cost too much”. The tone of the discussion needs to be a "can-do" attitude, and when and “How can we do this and make it affordable”. We need to acknowledge that a lack of accessible and affordable clean water in every part of our land for whatever use is and always has been our major challenge. Even our national security is linked to it. We need to face this challenge, not turn our backs on it or dismiss it. 

We never bothered pushing forward in a meaningful way with this issue because we thought the crops grown would be worth less than the water used to produce them. But this view doesn’t change the argument that without water, there can be no life. And life is not just agriculture, it’s everything that makes a growing country what it is.

This is the first post in a series of posts imagining how I might set about resolving this single most pressing issue for us here in Australia. Since it is such a fundamental issue, it feeds into so many other issues. They will also be mentioned. 

Some of the things I'll say you might agree with, and some you may not. That's okay. What matters is that we all start thinking about the right things and not give up because it is hard and because it has never been done before. And I am not suggesting some white elephant project, as we can see developing in Saudi Arabia presently. I am suggesting testing and modelling in a responsible, cost-effective way. Then, moving to limited real-life case studies, which provide the basis for a profitable business model which can spread throughout the country. 

In 1981, Steve Jobs gave an interview. He spoke about a study comparing the efficiency of locomotion of all the species on planet Earth. Humans walking came about a third of the way down the list. The condor could travel the furthest with the least amount of energy expended. Then Steve said someone put a human on a bike, and humans became twice as efficient travelling the same distance as the condor. Then he said, "I am making a bike for the mind with a computer". What if you could build a bike for our entire country?

Since 1880 the USA has been 25% of global GDP. If Australia follows the vision that I suggest, then maybe we can become the next America. Since other Asian countries are growing exponentially, that's a tall order. But I believe it's possible with excellent leadership. 

Something Timothy Snyder said in an interview gives me great hope for the future of democracies. He said  democracy is not a spectator sport. If you want your country to thrive as a democracy then you have to participate. That means speak up if you think you have something worthwhile to contribute. You can't do that in a totalitarian state. So most of the best ideas should show up in democracies first. Think of the number of decisions and speaches that lead to decisions that are made every day in an economy. The cumulative effect of that over a generation would be the difference between night and day. 

Something else Timothy Synder said which makes me think he might be on to something. The wealthier and more powerful a person might be, the more say they have over an economy. The trouble is, such people often attract sycophants who tell them how brilliant they are no matter what they do or say. Decisions reflect the ego and needs of the decision maker rather than the economy as a whole. 

The beauty of the internet is that all ideas can be thrown into the public arena and voted on by likes and dislikes. That was until unfriendly states and the super rich decided that social engineering was the best thing ever. And for some reason bots are legal on social media. If I was the Government of a country, I would fine a social media company for every bot I found on their platform.

 

I think just recently, Australia had a conference which discussed how to make our country more productive. The conference focused on human capital. So they were talking about how to make our 28 million people more efficient or smarter or something. But 28 million people on the world stage is not a big population. 7.6 million square kilometers is massive. So if you made that more productive, then you are talking real leverage. That's what this series of chapters is about....