Catching up with Australia a debatable goal

John de Bueger can't quite understand the obsession with catching up with Australia.

It has become almost impossible to have a discussion of economic issues without someone mentioning bridging the gaps with Australia.

What is less clear is quite why the sole issue of salary-level parity is admirable, or even desirable.

Australia's illusory wellbeing is almost totally based on quarrying, and once they have blasted the place to bits and dispatched entire mountain ranges in shovel-sized pieces on one-way trips to China, one could well ask, what's their next party trick going to be?

Clearly, if a country wants First World social services, then the tax take has got to match costs, but it doesn't follow that continuous improvement is desirable.

But for those who believe that non-stop economic growth is the be-all and end-all of life on earth, there is no shortage of books discussing theories of the wealth of nations (to pinch the title of Adam Smith's early treatise on the subject.)

There was an excellent article published in New Zealand recently by Girol Karacaoglu (based on content from, Handbook of Economic Growth).

It offered an interesting, if slightly simplistic, explanation why some countries do much better economically than others.

The original authors identified three fundamental factors around which most theories of economic growth have been constructed - nature, culture and economic institutions.

Nature relates to geography, and in particular, a country's climate and natural resources.

In the case of Australasia, it's clear that we've got the better climate, while the Aussies have got larger, more accessible mineral resources.

This country's dependence on land-based agricultural production has been driven by a benign climate.

Not for nothing do two blades of grass grow here compared with one in Europe.

Green grass is a rare sight in Australia.

The second key issue revolves around culture.

Obviously, nations steeped in the Protestant work ethic are going to end up economically better off than those who would rather laze around in the sun with a bit of tribal hunter-gathering - whether on wildlife or the dole.

Asia offers several examples.

Singapore is rich despite having virtually no natural resources, relying instead on its strategic location and entrepreneurial initiative.

There is no shortage of countries demonstrating precisely the opposite.

It is all too easy to jump to the simplistic conclusion that, for prosperity, all a country has to do is to adopt proven, free-market philosophies, but this is where I diverge.

Unless a country also has an entrenched high level of honesty, and a culture which totally rejects corruption, it is doomed to widespread misery.

For this reason we should stop trying to ape Australia, and instead, restore compulsory religious/ethical instruction in schools and honour the legacy of our Western Christian heritage; by teaching real history.

John de Bueger is a New Plymouth writer and engineer.