ps. was there an announcement this week by Rudd that the whole of australia will feel the fallout from the NW gas explosion ?? Why is that ??? How can such a small inconsequential state such as WA have any effect on the rest of Australia — something doesnt add up …

Bear in mind that the resources boom is only on in earnest in the past 18 months. Also bear in mind that as I say above, there are still massive untapped mineral deposits all over WA, the NT, SA and Qld which are undiscovered or undeveloped. The best is yet to come.

But really, why the pissing contest? Australia is like any economy, it gains from trade and specialisation.

But all states are not equal — WA’s land area represents 34% of the total area of Australia. So based only on mining output, WA is substantially underperforming when compared to land available to the rest of the country – it is about half as productive as the rest of the country. Let’s not even talk about WA’s very low contribution to overall GDP (5%).

It’s little wonder there’s so much money being sunk into WA, since there is obviously a lot of room to improve.

Somehow, I think we in the east would survive without them.

* HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INQUIRY INTO RESOURCES EXPLORATION IMPEDIMENTS August 2002

Andrew, what, do the eastern states not have farmers or miners either? Quite a few more farmers than WA, and historically just as many or more miners. Though they’re all whining special interest groups. Fine, bugger off sandgropers, you’d be missed less than you think.

http://au.360.yahoo.com/profile-ijpxwMQ4dbXm0BMADq1lv8AYHknTV_QH
OK you might just discover that the Framers of the Constitution held that the colonies themselves were regarded countries and that there is no such country as the Commonwealth of Australia as it is not even a dominion as it is a POLITICAL UNION. Therefore forget about handing in AUSTRALIAN CITIZENSHIP as a NATIONALITY, as it doesnt exist as such, it is a POLITICAL STATUS.
And there is a lot more to this, as set out on my blog and website.
And, if the High Court of Australia was deemed to be right about the Australia Act 19086 (I do not agree with it) then forget about the Commonwealth of Australia existing as it doesnt either. As the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (UK) federated the colonies but the Australia Act purports to be a federation under the Queen of Australia, a non existing country!
As for the contribution of States, well anyone ever has read Section 94 of the constitution?
If that was followed we all would be a lot better of, in particular if all the ex politicians who are getting, so to say, tax free job-for-the-mates were charged tax as is constitutionally required.
The Constitution is there but just the politicians couldnt care less about it.

Didnt the Framers of the constitution state;
HANSARD 11-3-1891 Constitution Convention Debates
Mr. CLARK:
Representative government is not an expedient or a makeshift to obviate the necessity of having every man brought into one chamber to give his vote; but it is a substantial institution devised for the special purpose of endeavouring, so far as possible, to get the intelligence and the judgment of the community to decide what shall, and what shall not, be law, and not simply to count mere heads.
?
Well, if just we could manage this after more then 100 years we would get there.

Given that mining only accounts for something like 4% of Australias GDP, perhaps the next election would look a little brighter if WA were forced to secede from Australia.

Mining contributes 35% of export earnings and employs a bucketload of well-paid people. It also pays billions of dollars into Commonwealth revenue. We’d all be up the creek without it.

It happens that Western Australia and the Northern Territory are vast and much less explored than the heavily-populated eastern seaboard, which is why they are coming into their own as mining/export powerhouses.

WA – sponging off the rest of us and bitching about it for 106 years. And counting.

CAM said:

If New South Wales was a nation it would be the 28th largest economy on the planet; bigger than South Africa…

Sorry (sort of) to quibble, but I suspect that this is incorrect, given the far larger black economy and household sector in South Africa than in Australia – acreas of activity that do not find their way into GDP stats.

(When Oz is mapped by GDP or life expectancy, we end up near the “Great Lakes” states in the north/west of the US)

(NSW comes in at number 20 and 130, respectively.)