Australia 2050: It's Time to Dream Big Again

For the past two Liberty Itch articles I’ve been asking what’s happened to leadership in Australia.

Where are the visionaries? And what’s the difference between being ‘A Leader’ and merely holding the title of ‘The Leader’?

Fair questions. But eventually criticism has to give way to something more important. Where would I like Australia to go?

I want us to dream big again. Not Labor’s Australia. Not Liberal’s Australia. Not even One Nation’s Australia. Our Australia.

A uniquely Australian country that knows what it is, rewards effort, welcomes people who want to contribute to it, and leaves the next generation something better than we inherited.

That’s the vision.

And it starts by thinking beyond the next election.

Japan does this extraordinarily well. Its government talks about the society it wants to create decades into the future. Its Society 5.0 program doesn’t merely ask what technology Japan should buy next year, but what kind of society technology, education, industry and human ingenuity should create. Some Japanese government “Moonshot” programs explicitly target 2050.

Meanwhile Australian politics celebrates a four-year infrastructure pipeline as long-term thinking.

There’s our first problem.

Labor and Liberal have spent decades managing Australia from election to election. One announces something, the other opposes it. Government changes. Policies change. Reviews are commissioned. Billions are spent. Then we start again.

What if we agreed on where Australia should be in 2050 first? I have some ideas.

Australia should be the first destination in the world for skilled migrants who want to work and contribute. Not migration simply to make GDP bigger, but talent: engineers, doctors, researchers, scientists, toolmakers, fabricators, entrepreneurs, teachers, technicians.

People choosing Australia because it is the best country on Earth to build a life.

We should be an international education powerhouse, attracting the world’s brightest students while ensuring Australian education serves Australians first.

We should be a medical research powerhouse, turning our universities, hospitals and scientific institutions into magnets for global talent and investment.

Australia should become a major data and digital infrastructure hub. We possess something increasingly valuable in an unstable world: geographic security, political stability, huge land mass, and enormous energy resources. Austrade already identifies Australia’s stability and energy potential as advantages for data-centre investment.

We should remain one of the world’s great tourist destinations. And above all, Australia should again be known as the land of opportunity.

Work available for everyone capable of working. A pathway to home ownership. A country where an apprentice can become a business owner, an immigrant can build a company and a kid who isn’t academically inclined isn’t treated as though their future has already been decided.

But none of this works without one thing. We must retain the ability to make things.

The SEMMA Manufacturing Blueprint I co-authored set an objective of increasing manufacturing from 5.9 per cent of GDP to 10 per cent.

Why? Not nostalgia; sovereignty.

COVID taught us what happens when global supply chains stop.

A sovereign nation must retain sufficient capability to feed itself, power itself, defend itself, repair essential infrastructure and manufacture strategically important products. That requires skills, investment, R&D, automation, competitive businesses and, critically, reliable affordable energy.

One Nation understands this emerging argument better than the two major parties. Sovereignty isn’t wrapping yourself in a flag. It’s having the capability to look after yourself when things go wrong.

Then consider our natural resources.

Norway discovered enormous petroleum wealth and asked an extraordinary question: How do we make sure people who aren’t even born yet benefit from this?

Its answer became a sovereign wealth fund specifically designed so petroleum wealth benefits current and future generations. (Regjeringen.no)

What a concept. We export iron ore, gas, coal, uranium and critical minerals, then frequently buy back finished products manufactured from our resources. We’ve exported the resources and the jobs. In some cases we even exported the emissions, then imported the finished product.

And our governments are drowning in debt.

Maybe Australia should ask Norway’s question: What inheritance are we leaving?

Sweden provides another lesson. It deliberately connects its natural resources with advanced manufacturing, research, innovation, energy and technical capability. Its current industrial strategy is explicitly about building future competitiveness and supply resilience. (Regeringskansliet)

Why can’t Australia?

And while we’re rediscovering economic confidence, let’s rediscover something else: the Unique Australia. The Australia where people arrived from every corner of the world and became part of something. Different backgrounds, religions, foods, family histories. But one Australia.

That’s what I mean when I talk about monoculture. Not everybody looking alike or thinking alike. A common culture.

Common standards. Common responsibilities. A belief in democracy, freedom, opportunity, equality before the law, reward for effort and an obligation to leave the place better than we found it.

Manufacturing demonstrates this beautifully. Walk onto a factory floor and you’ll find people born all over the world. The drawing doesn’t care. The Australian Standard doesn’t care. The tolerance doesn’t care. Everyone works towards the same outcome.

That’s Australia.

My vision isn’t complicated. A confident Australia. A productive Australia. A skilled Australia. A manufacturing Australia.

A country attracting the world’s best people rather than simply the greatest number. A country exploiting its extraordinary resources intelligently and preserving wealth for generations yet unborn. A country where government enables opportunity rather than attempting to control every outcome. A country with full employment, affordable reliable energy, world-class education and research, sovereign capability and confidence in its own culture.

We don’t need to become Japan. We don’t need to become Norway. We certainly don’t need to become Sweden.

We need to learn from countries prepared to think thirty years ahead and then do something much more ambitious: become Australia again.

The resources are already here. The people are already here. The opportunity is already here. What’s missing is the vision.

And maybe it’s time we stopped asking what Australia will look like after the next election and started asking what Australia could become in the next generation.