Accepted for publication in the Australian Journal of International Affairs

The re-emergence of China in the new millennium has increased global demand for mineral resources, causing a return to the Australian vision of national prosperity tied to primary exports – this time minerals. Many analysts have questioned the wisdom of anchoring Australia’s prosperity to being a quarry for Asia. The current mining boom has enabled Australia to postpone, but has not removed, the need to develop new industries to sustain a high standard of living in a future marked by global warming. Since innovation is essential to the development of new industries that can contribute to a strong and sustainable economy, cultivating innovation requires serious national commitment over the long term. This requires Australia to seriously reconsider education policy at all levels and to abandon what I term ‘rational choice populism ’ – a culture of anti-intellectualism and an unequivocal belief in a form of market fundamentalism – that discourages the advanced level of investment in human capital required for innovation