Some protection is essential

3. Seasonal rainfall over large tracts of rather flat tropical land where large-scale water storage of water for the dry season is not readily feasible;

4. Large tracts of marginal grazing lands usually with limited water supply for either stock watering or natural stock feed production;

5. Significant reserves of metal ores that require fossil carbon fuel for reduction of either oxide or sulphide ore to produce usable metals;

6. Reserves of coal that can only be regarded as significant on a per capita basis. Substantial reserves of shale oil, but very limited supplies of liquid fossil fuels;

7. Substantial reserves of nuclear fuels both of uranium and the inherently safer thorium ores; and

8. Fixed infrastructure such as homes, offices, dams, airports, ports, roads and the like and irrelevant things such as household and personal items.

There are distinct disadvantages attributable largely to the geography of this country. The initial white settlements picked what appeared then to be the best available sites and, once established, the markets of these sites attracted industries that rely on being close to their markets for success. For these reasons more than half the Australian population resides within a radius of about 100km from the population centre of two or three major capital cities.

Transport distances between the major population centres are substantial and this provides scale and transport advantages to manufacturers of consumer durables located in large external markets. This often comes with cheap labour costs or certainly low costs for any marginal increase in output, output which is often dumped in a foreign market.

The China situation is an example of this 'beggar thy neighbour' attitude in action. The Chinese currency has not been allowed to float, so is presently well undervalued. China thus makes imports expensive for its citizens and makes sure that its economy can expand to keep internal unemployment low and possible dissatisfaction and dissent at bay.

What do we want for the children coming into the world in Australia in the late decades of this century? Surely we want them to be secure, have an opportunity for an enlightening education, to have a sustainable reasonably high standard of living and a satisfying life into which they can then bring their own offspring.

One question to answer is, "Can this aim be achieved by an unplanned largely deregulated economy?"

I do not think it can in the present atmosphere, where instant gratification seems to be the aim of many people and business models.