Notes from Melbourne

I am spending some time in Australia including attending the 2010 Australian Moodle Moot - a gathering of over 450 people from around the world who are committed to using the open source Moodle system as a way of supporting teaching and learning.

The Australian economy looks in decent health judging from a quick glance at the big macroeconomic numbers. The economy avoided falling into recession (one of the few developed nations to achieve this after the financial crisis) and employment is rising strongly. True, much of the growth has come from surging exports of iron ore, coal and natural gas to the Chinese. And also the impact of a series of fiscal stimulus programmes introduced by the Australian government. The Aussie dollar is fairly strong - not good news for a Pom looking for value for money in the shopping malls of Melbourne and Sydney. But when you have travelled half way round the world an extra few dollars on the price barely registers.

One of the issues that Australia faces is whether the economy has become overly dependent on the mining sector as a growth stimulant. Is the economy exposed too much to the vagaries of world commodity prices kept high by increasing market demand from the emerging economic powerhouses?