Can Australia eventually achieve its true potential, in spite of its long history as ‘supplicant’ to powerful “friends” ?

As 2024 drew to its inevitable close, my country, Australia, my home for the past 65 years and the major part of my adult life, found itself and 27+ million other dwellers in the ‘Lucky Country’, approaching a point in time, a decisive and irrevocable turning point known to historians, philosophers and chroniclers as a ‘Rubicon’.

By this, and with a high degree of concern, that particular description of Australia’s current posture, is used here to indicate that my country is fast approaching an important line-in-the-sand. Call it what you like — a point, or in this essay: the future direction of something often referred to as a potential ‘point of drastic divergence’.

I sense that Australia is close to that point. Should we decide to cross it, and continue along our current track, life in a number of areas critical to the country’s ongoing development, health and success, could well result in an increased level of national discomfort and danger; it could also result in the added potential for disaster.

Too strong a statement, you might be thinking? Well, read on and think again……….