Australia's economy is based on mining plus a “Ponzi” housing market reliant on immigration. How did we get into this mess? And how do we get out?

The above is a recipe for long term disaster.

Selling our commodities and buying back value-added products from overseas, leaves us at the mercy of trade manipulation, price gouging, supply chain interference, blackmail and loss of sovereign control of our destiny.

We have already seen this in action. Hard ball. Blocking coal, wine, barley and more.

Relying on one export product and one export market does us no favours whatsoever.

And putting all our investment dollars into “bricks and mortar” – just inflates the “Ponzi balloon” of fixed assets even further, and leaves business investment “blowing in the wind”.

And locks our young and disadvantaged out of the housing market, distorts our perception of what a house is anyway, and pushes an increasing number of people onto the streets, into cars, tents and under bridges.

We can do better than this.

We are rich in minerals, but we are also rich in intellect and ideas.

We support the creation of ideas and innovation in our schools, universities and CSIRO, but then fail to support it effectively in translation.

Ideas have to be translated into actions to deliver value to society. That action can include publishing, communication, knowledge sharing, further education, manufacture and export.

We need to manage our intellectual wealth wisely to benefit Australia.

Yet, we are 72nd for knowledge diffusion – which illustrates that we don't share information or collaborate effectively.

And we are 93rd in the world for economic complexity, which demonstrates the result of our almost total reliance on mining and housing, without the translation of innovation into new products and services.

We have to create things.

We have to design things.

We have to make things.

And we have to sell them.

It is not enough to generate ideas in universities and CSIRO. We have to then do something with those ideas and innovations. Not just publish papers and think that is that.

And it’s not enough to then foster those ideas in incubators, if we don’t look after the “chickens’ the incubators hatch.

Australia has lots of incubators churning out ideas and innovations that are rarely supported into maturity. Into business growth. Into exports and sales.

And many of these nascent innovative companies leave our shores, never to return. We invest in innovations that benefit others, not ourselves. Our investment. Their reward.

We are paying for other countries to leverage our investment in education and training.

Some innovative companies remain, and we can probably all name them, because they fit onto the fingers of just one or two hands.

We can do better.

We need to nurture our ideas. With vision. And a plan.

An idea represents a possibility. It is a seed.

With the right support and environment, the seed can go on to become a mature plant. A plant that itself generates more seeds and so on.

We need to farm our resources. Select the seeds. Put them in the right place. Water. Fertilise. Harvest. Sell. Export.

We understand the principle. We have observed the principle in nature and copied and refined it in agriculture and then in our businesses and marketplaces. 

The National Reconstruction Fund is focused on renewables, medical science, agribusiness, resources and mining, defence, transport and enabling technologies.

It is good that the government is supporting hydrogen and clean energy.

But on top of that we also have to create things.

We have to design things.

We have to make things.

And we have to sell them.

We have to increase our economic complexity.

Have a look at “Australia’s Economic Challenges” - myregion.au/economic_challenges.pdf

We have strengths in many areas.

As a country we support idea generation.

But we need to spread that support further.

As Elliot Duff pointed out, in 2022, the Productivity Commission said, “While novel, ‘new-to-the-world’, innovation is an important source of economic performance, it relates to only one to two per cent of Australian firms.

The slow accretion of existing knowledge across the economy — diffusion — is often overlooked as a source of productivity. It has the scope to lift the performance of millions of businesses.”

That is an interesting comment.

Diffusion.  The scope to lift the performance of millions of businesses.

Sharing information on “what works, what doesn’t and why” would be useful to any and every business in the country.

Stories, case studies, strategies, events, webinars.

Case studies are easily digestible, illustrations of the benefit of adopting and using new approaches, new technologies, accessing new markets, collaborating with others and building capacity.

Online events can be stored and accessed at any time to stimulate and catalyse positive change.

So why don’t we do this strategically?

Not just randomly.

Australia is huge. But we are not good at collaborating and sharing knowledge.

We need to help all businesses better understand “what works, what doesn’t and why”.

There is no reason why we should not share knowledge strategically rather than in the haphazard way we do at the moment.

Knowledge diffusion can be managed strategically as well as randomly.

The myREGION.au platform exists for that purpose. To share knowledge and ideas. Strategically.

Based on our regions. Based on our industries. Based on our issues.

Not somebody else's.

To support collaboration nationally in Australia. Regionally and locally. And to showcase products and services generated in Australia with others around the world.

Have a look. Sign up is free.

Engage. Share. Collaborate.

Who knows what might happen.