Contents

• Introduction
• Why Australia is ‘lucky’?
• Geography
• Ecology
• Economy
• Social and Political factors
• Can we still call Australia a ‘lucky country’?
• Conclusion
• References

Description

Donald Home (1964) termed Australia ‘ a lucky country run by second rate people, who share its luck’ (Culture.gov.au., 2009). The comment was made in the 60s. The second part, of course, reflected strong colonial influence of and dependency to those European countries that ruled Australia. The second part is not applicable now as the nation has grown since with its own independent governmental policies on social issues, human rights, economy, ecology etc. Australia is called lucky country because of its rich natural resources like forests, minerals, oil, aquatic resource, and its distance from the rest of the world, absence of wars etc. Australia does not share land borders with any other country. So no border disputes with neighbors. In fact the continent is so far from the rest of the world, it is unaffected by the turbulence in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Eastern European countries etc. Australia is relatively free from the menace of terrorism as compared to the USA, UK, and Canada etc. Most importantly, Australia is a developed nation. Australia’s GDP or Gross Domestic Product measured on purchasing power parity basis stood at $ 760 billion in 2007 and accounted for 1.1% of gross world product (Trading Economics, 2009). Its GDP per capita is one of the highest in the world. So with all the natural resources, peace, prosperity, Australia indeed measures to the nick name of ‘lucky country’. But will that last? With diminishing rain fall over the years resulting in shortage of drinking water, with eco threats having arisen out of global warming such as rising sea levels, can the nation still be called lucky? The paper discusses the reasons behind Australia being called lucky country. The paper also discusses the current scenario and the future scenario to ascertain as to whether the country can still be called lucky country. The paper also analyses ecological, economical, social and political factors that might just ‘take away’ the luck factor of the nation.