The outlook for the Australian economy beyond the short term is, we believe, cause for concern. James Arvanitakis and Lee Rhiannon discuss this country's reliance on the volatile resources sector as the engine of economic growth at the expense of manufacturing and other valued-added areas. This article originally appeared in the Australian Financial Review, Feb 2010

We've been interviewing bright emerging thinkers working on ideas to make our economy more sustainable, in our recent search for a new Fellow to join the team at the Centre for Policy Development. Our challenge was to unearth a new thinker who can imagine what a truly sustainable Australia might look like - and then to research the policy ideas that can help us get there. In our search we received many applications and interviewed 5 emerging researchers. It was a challenging decision, but let us introduce you to our newly appointed Sustainable Economy Fellow: Tani Shaw.

Anne Manne makes a compelling case for putting an ethic of care – with its values of justice, fairness, interdependence, reciprocity, compassion and respect - at the very centre of a new progressive politics.

Robert Salter argues that better relationships are the key to successful action on climate change. As whole societies, we cannot respond adequately to the enormous challenge the climate change threat poses until we achieve greater internal cohesion, and until we focus less on being wealthier and more on being happier. He contends that progress toward both goals requires us to build richer, more effective relationships in all areas of our lives.

Drew Hutton proposes that leftists who care more about the loss of coal mining jobs than reducing carbon emissions can place themselves alongside the climate change denialists, the right-wing think tanks and the fossil fuel lobby as the enemies of sustainability.