Showing results by narrator "Judith Brett" in All Categories

Australia is a wealthy nation with the economic profile of a developing country - heavy on raw materials and low on innovation and skilled manufacturing. Once we rode on the sheep’s back for our overseas trade; today we rely on cartloads of coal and tankers of LNG. So must we double down on fossil fuels, now that COVID-19 has halted the flow of international students and tourists? Or is there a better way forward, which supports renewable energy and local manufacturing?

For many decades Australia was the country that rode on the sheep's back. No more - now we are a country of mining and services. In QE42, one of Australia's most original and respected political thinkers, Judith Brett, looks at what this has meant for the country and the city in our politics and culture.The politics of independence and dependence are complicated, as the Murray-Darling water reform shows. And the question remains: What will be the fate of rural and regional Australia?