[tomtomau]

Politics and lobbying mostly I'd guess. Resources sector are the major donors to the two major parties. Resources supported boom growth through the 2000s but we didn't do a great job transitioning to "new technology industries".

There is a national debate on the outcome of the Adani coal mine which in oversimplified terms is willing to risk X0,000 tourism industry jobs to save X00 resources jobs.

"Australians are good at two things, digging things up out of the ground and selling property to each other"