PROPOSED DISCUSSION START - ECOLOGICAL RESTRUCTURING OF THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY

The Australian economy, like that of all industrial capitalist societies, is currently ecologically unsustainable. In part this is for reasons common to such societies including the "treadmill of production" in all capitalist democracies and the presence of particular industries and technologies which are intrinsically unsustainable in any social system. However, there are also reasons specific to Australia stemming from its developmental history, political economy and current economic structure.

Australia can be considered, along with New Zealand, Canada and Argentina, as a "dominion capitalist" economy. Such economies were initially created by European imperial colonisation within a broader imperial system controlled by the colonial power, and typically combined a reliance on primary and commodity-based exports with heavily protected but weak manufacturing & services sectors, with high levels of foreign ownership and weak domestic capital formation across all sectors.

From its origins in the British Empire, Australia is now part of the capitalist world economy albeit in a semi-peripheral and semi-dependent position, with US capitalism as the single biggest influence and East Asian capital as an emerging force, and with an economic structure and patterns of ownership which still exhibit many features of "dominion capitalism." This has adverse economic consequences including high structural unemployment, a deteriorating balance of payments and low levels of domestic enterpreneurship and capital formation. It also has adverse environmental consequences through heavy dependence on industries with high environmental impact, pressures for unsustainable land and resource use, and the locus of economic and investment decisions often being far removed from Australia and from considerations of our national environmental or economic interest.

Australia's British colonial origins are reflected in the role of colonial and post-colonial state agencies in promotion of development without regard for ecological consequences, with historic consequences including: the inertial force of developmental and "reverse-adapted" state bureaucracies like the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission; producer interest-group capture of state regulatory agencies (e.g. State Forestry Commissions); and the existence of significant economic sectors and interests highly dependent on continued public subsidy in various forms for little social benefit and at considerable environmental cost.

Australia suffers from the legacy of inappropriate patterns of development and human settlement based on unrealistic assumptions about, or failure to consider, their long-run economic or ecological viability. Consequences of this include failed or failing attempts at intensive inland settlement and development; suburban and ex-urban sprawl and associated problems; and unplanned settlement and overdevelopment of coastal areas. Unsustainable development in Australia is also rooted in the failure to consider the limits which Australia's arid interior, ancient geological structure, and the tropical climatic and ecological conditions over the northern half of continent, impose on human development and settlement.

Our current material affluence is largely based on patterns of consumption which involve high per-capita environmental and resource "take" for little or no real gain in quality of life, and which may also be economically unsustainable given the structure of the Australian economy and its position in world capitalism. Corporate globalisation is exacerbating this.

Current economic policies, including taxation and fiscal policies, provide insufficient encouragement for aspects of ecologically sustainable development such as dematerialisation of production, ending unsustainable resource and land use, ecological modernisation, slowing and reversal of the capitalist tendency to substitute materials (including toxics) and energy for human labour, and altering unsustainable consumption practices. Major economic decisions with major ecological consequences continue to be made without regard for such impacts, and in institutional frameworks which foster such neglect.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the opportunities in Australia for (a) restructuring existing industries and sectors on a more sustainable basis and (b) encouraging environmentally benign new industries and forms of economic activity?
2. What areas of overlap/synergy are there between economic restructuring for sustainability, and measures required to overcome chronic economic problems such as lack of external balance and structural unemployment?
3. How can we facilitate the movement of people and resources out of existing unsustainable patterns of development and settlement into ones which are sustainable? How can the risks of social injustice, hardship or authoritarian methods in this process be alleviated?
4. What potential is there for "sustainable development" concepts such as eco-design, ecological tax reform, industrial ecology and ecological modernisation to achieve ecological sustainability within the framework of the capitalist market economy?
5. What contribution can be made to achieving sustainability by micro-level projects such as intentional communities, co-housing, co-operatives, "third sector" employment initiatives, LETS and other non-money economic projects, etc?
6. Will a sustainable society require radical social change in the direction of a "conserver society" which is neither capitalist nor primarily market-driven? How can such a society be achieved?