Australia's promise

The next Golden State


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Readers' comments



Mineral mining is an economic time bomb and Aussies have two choices.

They can make good use of their mineral dollars to foster innovation through long term investments (domestic and overseas) in higher education, DENSE urban development, and the arts. (like Seattle and San Francisco)


They can emulate the Southern US growth model by subsidizing sprawling suburbs (might I add, terribly leveraged against rising gas prices), Xenophobia, sticking with mineral mining then falling victim to Dutch Disease and stagnation.

Jai Prakash Sharma

With vast land, rich mineral and natural resources, skilled manpower, and an open democratic order, Australia no doubt presents a perfect picture of a model nation, nonetheless a sublime infatuation for white race superiority that often seems defining its elite psyche might not only work against its own aborigines with causing serious challenges of national integration and social harmony, but the resultant discriminatory immigration policy regime might gravely erode its base of human capital formation, that too when, Australia seems embarking on the path to emerge as the knowledge and education hub of the world.

Mat B

Don't know where this view that Australians either don't value education, or are uneducated, comes from. The OECD ranks Australia significantly above the OECD average for percentage of population with tertiary qualifications and ranks Australia ahead of, notably, the US and the UK. (Search for "OECD" and "to what level have adults studied").

I also agree with those expressing surprise at the level of animosity directed at Australia.


Aaah my old friend patriot1/Paulose100 (Also known as Indiancat/Woggs/Catindian/aleebro)
I didn’t think it would take long for you to appear on an article about Oz. And still copy and pasting the EXACT SAME claims that I have several times rebutted…… *yawn… you are so monotonous. So here we go again.

For those of you that don’t know who he is, he is an Indian with the biggest chip on his shoulder when it comes to the west and specifically Australia. He has lived in NZ for just over 7 years and continual reminds everyone that he is moving back to India as soon as he can, due to its higher standard of living.

He comments under the following names (and sometimes has conversations with himself):

The proof? Well he actually says the exact same thing under different names - and I doubt he wants to admit to plagiarism.... tsk tsk against the rules!
You can save yourself a lot of time and just read what he really thinks about Australia here:

He even posted here twice already…. But hasn’t talked to himself yet!

So to his post:

“I'm not sure I follow the reasoning of this article…..


….in the long run”

Claimed here (partially or verbatim):
13/01/11 by Indiancat
13/01/11 by Catindian
15/02/11 by Paulose100
04/04/11 by Woggs

Rebutted here:

Notice the use of “EVERYONE KNOWS”.
Notice the use of “THE ARGUMENT GOES”.


living in Melbourne for 4 year as a foreigner as a Chinese, I haven’t encountered racism, mainly because the aussie I met are university students (maybe yes racism but I didn’t realize?). Australian are not really welcome immigrants (particularly from Asia), because of many are fear of competition, also because racialism. I agree that many Australian are unskilled but have decent income.

Very expensive to live here, not just compared to Asia, also compared to many european countries and north America, I reckon the reasons are expensive unskilled labour, lack of competition (no one wants to bring the price down, because no need to do so), high transportation cost (if you like big brand products,say cosmetics, don’t live in Australia, you can get them much cheaper in US)

But after meeting so many people around the world, Australian are very nice, generally speaking. Canadian are awesome, very nice experience in Canada last year!!!

No statistics to back here, all based on my personal experience


What I find ridiculous is the American propaganda that the U.S. is a country "made by inmigrants" because it can be said about ANY other nation. Then England was made by inmigrants from the Mailand (Anglos, Saxons, Jutes), Scandinavians, French etc, etc. Japan was made by Asian inmigrants from the Mainland while the aboriginal population (ainos) is discriminated. Or Turkey, as Turks arrived from Central Asia to the Eastern Roman Empire, and most Greeks were expelled. Or in Iceland where all the population inmigrated from Scandinavia. So, that sentence "a country made by inmmgrants" as if America was something special is stupid and ridiculous. I am from Spain, but I don´t have any doubt America and Australia are nations created by Britons. Inmigrants are assimilated by the ANGLO TRIBE and learn the English language.


ark, Already 10% of the Australian population are Asian inmigrants. Can you imagine how would Chinese or Japanese react if 10% of their population were European inmigrants?

Even among Asians there is discrimination. Decades ago, thousands of Chinese were killed in Indonesia after an uprising. And in Malaysia there is affirmative action against Chinese, similar to the affirmatie action in America against whites.


@ae7smith - thanks for letting know...I stand corrected.

So Australians don't mind the white people from UK and NZ? What about the non-whites: are they welcome?


"I heard that the Australians hated immigration...because most immigrants are not white people from the West!!"

You heard wrong, the majority of Australia's immigration comes from New Zealand and the UK.


Or just remember how the Native population of the Philipines ("negritos", melanesians) are discriminated by the Asian majority.


DavidFrawley, remember that the native population of Taiwan are the Melanesians (blacks) while Asians started arriving during the XVIII century from Mainland China (Hakkas and Fujianese) at the same time as the British to Australia....

Also remember that the native population of Japan are the Ainos (just a few thousand) while the overwhelming majority of Japanese are immigrants from the Mainland who almost wiped out the original Aino population.

The truth is that Australia is much more immigrant friendly than any Asian nation. Much more open to people from the rest of the World than any Asian nation. That is evident.


Talking about Alf Garnett racism - I find it odd that you should talk about that.
My family and I have never experienced this in my life in Australia.

However, recently when visiting the UK, carrying Australian passport,
and whilst traveling with my daughter, who had been backpacking around the world, the immigration officer took a very Alf Garnett approach to her.She was rescued by a younger supervisor.

But wherever she went, and whenever she met young backpacking Australians , she was always treated as one of them.

Australians might be parochial - But one would have to expect that with the great distances from the rest of the world.


Australia is a great country with tremendous potential. However, most of the time it feels more like a Ferrari running on two cylinders! Various factors contribute towards it being hamstrung from achieving its full potential.
For example, the Federal government is elected for a short three year period which means, that every government is looking over its shoulders. Legislation that goes through the lower house must then also pass through the Senate. However, the distribution of power in the senate is highly skewed in favour of the small states. New South Wales has a population that is more than 14 times that of Tasmania, but both states have exactly the same number of senators!
Western Australia with an area more than 10 times that of the United Kingdom and a population density of less than one person per square kilometre accounts for 44% of the whole of Australia’s exports, and is expected to top 50% soon!
Such imbalances are bound to have an impact over time. In Western Australia talk of secession is becoming more frequent and could easily be quietly fanned by pressures from overseas!


Sydney Guy wrote:
May 27th 2011 8:44 GMT

I'm interested in comments that Australia does not welcome migrants. Our foreign-born population is 25.0% (2007 statistics) of the entire population, second only to Luxemburg within the OECD (36.2%). Canada's foreign-born population is 20.1%

As a migrant who has lived here for 30 years - I can vouch for that.
If it is racism that you are talking about, there is always some around in ever country... BUT having lived in 4 different countries over the years,and originated from a fifth one, I can tell you that I find Autralia to be a lot less racist then all the other countries.', certainly a lot less then in England.

And yes, I have always felt at home here, a feeling I have never had anywhere else.


While the article is more or less the same as every other article the Economist has ever published on Australia ie the "luck" will run out some time in the ( unspecified ) future ...and the advice never changes viz Australia needs to be run by elites for elites and none of this common man garbage , I'm more intrigued by so many foreigners so disliking the country . Lets hope that this only increases the numbers of Australians who couldn't give a **** about what non Australians think . After all sensible people everywhere put their energies into their own self interest not some hypothetical internationally endorsed standard of what is appropriate


Australia has an abrasiveness of character that they maintained from the early English settlers. As an Irish person living in Sydney i encountered an anti-Irish sentiment on a number of occasions. Overheard people telling Irish jokes. Just really boring, unoriginal modes of thinking. Made me appreciate coming from a softer, kinder place. Model nation my ass, I couldnt wait to leave.


@ McSteel

I have wondered couple of times as well, what is going to happen to Australia once the resources are finished. It will need at least a generation to change the economy into a knowledge/service based economy and will Australia have the time for the smooth change.

I am sure the natural resources has a limit and how much time does Australia has before it is all finished. Can anyone highlight the time frame.....Is Australia running out of time?

How much longer before China abandons Australia and goes on looking for "New Australia" in parts of Africa etc?


I agree with the idea that Australia is more like Saudi Arabia than California. High education is not valued. Being a university graduate is still not being considered necessary in the year 2011. Rich natural sources helps the GDP per capita as it does in countries like Qatar, UAE, Norway..etc. Australia is a country of working class. All you need to do is to graduate from one of TAFE's (Technical and Further Education) programs and get a license as a plumber, electrician, Hair dresser, cook, butcher, mechanic...etc ..and here you go, you can make $1000/week. There is no need to study 4 years at a university and become an engineer, lawyer, teacher..etc to have a good life. No need to be intellectual, read books, develop yourself or be smart or really successful. Because there is no competition in the country. You don't need to be different or more skilled, or smarter or more educated than any other average person. I have been working in a big plumbing company in Sydney for 1,5 years. And I am still trying to get used to seeing plumbers without any real technical and engineering education, being the Project Managers of big projects, designing big complicated projects, with their long years of plumbing experiences. No engineering, no calculations needed. This won't save Australia in the future when there will no longer be enough resources left to feed all the citizens.



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