preface
The Australian government is subsidizing energy bills to more than 10 million Australian households and about one million small businesses.
From 1 July 2024 until 30 June 2025, Australians can expect to receive up to $300 in electricity bill reductions.
Australia, from the federal government to the state government, is carrying out energy subsidies!
It seems that residents have received a huge subsidy, but in fact it is embarrassing.
You know, Australia has the richest resources in the world!
In the end, residents are in a cost-of-living crisis!?
Australia has the richest resources in the world
Once upon a time, Australia was a great country to live in.
At that time, manufacturing was an important pillar of the Australian economy, contributing a significant portion of GDP.
Australia not only manufactures cars, but also manufactures a wide variety of goods, and has a complete supply chain.
Later, Australia embarked on a path of reliance on resource exports, with exports of iron ore, coal, natural gas and gold booming, house prices soaring, and the economy seemingly entering a phase of never-ending growth.
From a resource perspective, Australia's reserves are surprisingly rich:
· Australia's coal can be supplied for 12,200 years;
· Australia controls 28% of the world's uranium reserves;
· Australia's natural gas exports are among the highest in the world all year round, not to mention 20% of the world's natural gas exports.
This made Australia the world's first or second largest exporter of natural gas.
In addition, Australia is also extremely rich in mineral resources.
· the world's third largest cobalt producer;
· Lithium production accounts for nearly half of the world's production;
· Ranked sixth in the world in copper production;
· Nickel production is not far behind, ranking fifth;
· In addition, Australia controls 56% of the world's iron ore exports;
You might think that this should make Australia a powerhouse in steel, energy and even electronics and mechanical engineering.
With such abundant resources, Australia should be an energy superpower.
With a vast land area and a sparse population, with only 3.46 people per square kilometer, it stands to reason that there should be cheap land and housing.
But the reality is far from it.
Australia has cheap energy and abundant iron ore, which can be converted into high value-added materials, making Australia a global export superpower.
It stands to reason that Australia has everything it takes to be one of the richest countries in the world.
The reality, however, is that Australia has become one of the worst examples of wealth loss in the developed world.
Nowadays, it is even in a cost-of-living crisis!
Australia pays for itself
The energy crisis is one of them.
In pursuit of reducing emissions, Australia has reduced its use of coal, but this and other resources are still mined in large quantities, shipped overseas, and eventually burned elsewhere.
Australia seems to be comforting itself: as long as it doesn't burn these resources in Australia, it is a contribution to environmental protection.
The irony, however, is that after this gas is exported, it is often re-exported, and now even the East Coast has to import gas – which is simply ridiculous.
Because, Australia has never had a gas reserve plan.
Australia's cost-of-living crisis is actually due to the high base cost of production and supply.
The energy crisis is caused by a series of energy policies.
Australia prefers to export all raw materials and use them to make renewable energy equipment, ignoring the huge amount of energy consumed in the process.
Eventually, the equipment was shipped back with unreliable efficiency.
This has also left Australia's manufacturing sector in trouble, which now accounts for only 5.39% of the Australian economy.
To make matters worse, Australia lags far behind in the global economic complexity rankings, at 93rd, on par with Equatorial Guinea, but in a country that doesn't even have a movie theater.
Much of this is due to government policies, which can be changed at any time.
Australians have not enjoyed the resource dividend
Over the past 20 years, Australia has benefited greatly from rising global commodity prices, but the Australian people have not enjoyed this wealth.
The reason is simple, Australia has not established a reasonable resource tax mechanism to protect the national interest like Norway.
Taking natural gas as an example, Australia is currently the world's second-largest exporter.
But almost all of the gas was sold overseas, leading to an artificial shortage of gas supplies on the East Coast.
With no policies reserved for the country, coupled with the high cost of gas and electricity, the average Australian is under tremendous pressure.
The growth of LNG exports has brought Australia's trade to a new high, generating huge profits for foreign oil and gas companies.
However, Australia itself has limited tax benefits from it.
This is in stark contrast to Norway.
Norway levies taxes of up to 80% on its oil and gas industry, which generates huge tax revenues.
They put the money into a sovereign wealth fund, which is now the largest in the world, with an average share of about $290,000 per Norway resident.
Norway's resource wealth makes them one of the richest people in the world.
If Australia had taxed its own resources properly, the situation could have been very different, and Australia would have gained great wealth.
But the reality is that Australia taxes resources very lightly.
In contrast, Australia has rapidly increased its population through immigration, diluting mineral wealth that should have belonged to its citizens.
Qatar nationals have benefited greatly by properly taxing their resources. Residents of Qatar are not only exempt from income tax, property tax and corporate tax, but also enjoy free health care, education, government housing subsidies, and cheap electricity and gasoline.
And in Australia, many export facilities pay little to no royalties to state or federal governments.
epilogue
After all, Australia obviously has the most abundant resources in the world, which could have allowed everyone to live a comfortable life, but now it is making life more and more difficult.
There are so many natural gas exports, but the East Coast is in a shortage of its own, and housing prices have been skyrocketing, and the days are getting tighter and tighter.
What should be the richest place in the world turns out to be a prime example of a missed opportunity.
It's really unspeakably helpless.
What do you think?