The ideas boom – where to from here on?

"The Commonwealth Government has quite wisely recognised Australia’s long-term prosperity is unlikely to rely on our traditional areas of excellence. The exporting days for coal are numbered; easy power from open-cut mining may be out-priced by renewables; and even the market for iron ore may be challenged in the coming decades by new materials such as carbon fibre.

Generating robust and sizeable alternative forms of comparative advantage will be neither quick nor straightforward. It will take decades. But the first steps need to be taken." Read more

Elizabeth Webster The Conversation 20 Jan 2016