WITHOUT profitable enterprises, Australia will not be a prosperous nation.
This was the main message from Queensland University of Technology senior lecturer in international economics Dr Mark McGovern.
Dr McGovern spoke at the Agriculture in Crisis meeting earlier this week and said profitable enterprises were the key to ensuring Australia could sustain itself through a tumultuous global economic environment.
But he said at the moment government policy was not supporting or encouraging profitable enterprises.
"At Kevin Rudd's 2020 summit a few years ago we were discussing important factors of a successful rural and regional sector," Dr McGovern said.
"After 10 minutes no one thought profitability was important.
"Profitability seems to be a dirty word in Canberra but we need to get that sort of sensible thinking back in.
"How come we haven't known until now that things haven't been going so well nationally, because there has been no discussions."
According to Dr McGovern if government policy was not built around a recognition that profitability was paramount, the economy was in trouble.
"It is time federally and at State levels that we stop kidding ourselves," he said.
"The agricultural industry needs an agenda and we need to bring together a purpose.
"In this case, it would be a profitable agricultural industry, not internationally competitive firms which ignore capital deficiency issues."
Dr McGovern said it was important to seek mutually sustainable profitability.
He said viable enterprises and affordable funding were the goals the agricultural industry in Australia needed to have.
"It may surprise you to know that real interest rates averaged over 30 years are the highest they have been since Federation," Dr McGovern said.
"Given agriculture seems to have a policy which has meant interest expenses and loan repayments have been markedly dearer than any other decade since Federation, you can see why people are struggling.
"This is only exasperated by production and climatic difficulties."
Putting aside the recent tough times in agriculture, particularly in WA in recent years, Dr McGovern said that Australian agriculture had been in a deteriorating position for a number of years.
"Basically the industry has been going nowhere for 40 years," he said.
"And ABARES is predicting that won't change, but it is concerning that there has been no discussion about this until now."
According to Dr McGovern it all came down to the way our nation positioned itself against the rest of the world.
"People are assuming the world will just push Australia around, but we need to develop a policy that will ensure we can look after ourselves," he said.
"The current stresses come from decades of unbalanced markets, inappropriate finance, untoward processes and inept policies.
"Basically if you wanted to achieve better outcomes, you wouldn't do what we are doing.
"We need to establish an agenda and agree on things that need to be talked about.
"You need to talk to each other, neighbours, to people in the city and get them to understand the realities that agriculture faces nationally."
