Future Made In Australia (Michael Keating article)

May 3, 2024

Like so many democracies, Australia is struggling with the “Guns, Butter, Future Growth” dilemma, as Paul Kennedy wrote in “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers”, back in 1998.

Part of the reason for that struggle is that the importance of “Pure science” is often not recognized, as Janeway wrote in “Capitalism in the age of Innovation”. Australia has reduced its spending on pure science, even medical science, as part of its response to the lower taxes, currently at 27% of GDP, way below most developed countries except USA (24%).

Now our exports of Iron Ore, coal, Natural Gas, and tertiary education are all at risk due to climate change, and the world is once again heading towards a bipolar arrangement, the likely change in the terms of trade have to be addressed.

The only way to address them takes time, which is a great increase in STEM: also the only way to really address the housing crisis, the only way to make security partners like Japan, and South Korea, feel safe, the only way to address the rising cost of health care which is improving exponentially. It would be a miracle if no mistakes were made.