The “frog” is hard to move. Parochialism leads to a lack of economic complexity, fewer high value jobs, industries and opportunities.

The “frog in the well” syndrome is entrenched in Australia. We just don’t collaborate or share.

Addressing this issue successfully will take the collective efforts of universities, CSIRO, local, state and federal government and business to fix.

But it can be done. Collaboratively.

Connecting productive ecosystems of all kinds is the key – innovation, defence and security, climate action, energy, food & agribusiness, advanced manufacturing, ICT, AI & quantum computing, sport, health, aged care, education and so on.

Connecting our major vertical markets - Agriculture, Defence, Education, Energy, Health, Manufacturing andMining Services…with horizontal market capability – Innovation, Robotics, ICT, AI and Quantum, Cybersecurity, TVET, Climate Action, Waste & Recycling, Export and University Industry Engagement

Then we can rebuild capability and economic complexity across Australia. Move from 93rd in the world higher up the ratings.

And demonstrate that we can share knowledge better than we do today – 72nd for knowledge diffusion

The myREGION.au platform was developed to connect regions, industry sectors, academia and government into a national collaboration framework.

Australian.

We invite all universities, industry networks and government departments to view the platform.

Take a TEAMS’ tour. And you will understand its potential use in support of innovation, industry engagement, work integrated learning, innovation dissemination, and better connection between key networks in a region, all regions, sectors and beyond.

The myREGION.au platform is the only collaboration platform designed to include all Australian states and territories, regions, universities, councils, government departments and innovative businesses in one connected, national framework.

Sign up is free. Individuals and organisations can join, claim or suggest a listing, join groups and share.

Or organisations can pay to partner with the platform, with subscription options available for businesses, not for profits, corporates, government and institutions to use the platform for their own interests. Create groups, events, post and promote.

Businesses, universities and government have a listing in the showcase and also in the myEXPORT.au platform – a “shop window” to the world of what Australia has to offer.

Each listing is a mini website that can be customised to suit.

STRATEGY groups are organised into industry ecosystems – energy, climate action, health industry, resources & mining, food & agribusiness, security & defence, innovation etc to enable knowledge diffusion, cross pollination and information sharing.

People join a group, but then notice other related groups of interest and join those as well. Stimulating and enabling cross pollination of ideas. Something Australia needs.

CRCs, universities and businesses can join groups in an ecosystem relevant to them – Energy, Climate Action, Security & Defence, Health Industries, Resources & Mining, Space Industry and so on.

Researchers, business innovators and government can engage and share insights for any industry sector or region across Australia.

There is a page of BEST PRACTICE groups for each region, customised to the economic focus of the region. Each page provides a selection of groups that showcase the existing capability of the region - a “picture” of the regional economy.

Organisations can post videos, updates, events and information into BEST PRACTICE groups relevant to each region.

The platform operates a bit like a farm management system, but for a whole country not just a few fields and paddocks

A farm management system (FMS) manages "space" and “assets” - plants and animals.

The FMS provides a tool to manage the plants and animals on a farm, within the fields and paddocks, providing a mechanism to stimulate and measure the growth of the assets - plants and animals - for eventual sale.

The myREGION.au platform operates like an open source, agnostic, apolitical "farm management system" for the economy.

Space = regions. Assets = productive industries. Growth = Strategy and Best Practice groups. Sale = Domestic and Export "shop windows" – myEXPORT.au

We need to speed the sharing of ideas. To channel those ideas with purpose. Share the knowledge of what works, what doesn’t and why.

We need to connect siloes, enabling ideas to cross the barriers and walls we have created. Stop being parochial. Acting like ”frogs in wells.”

Australia is a big country with a small population and we are not good at collaboration and sharing. At a time when we need to be.

We have never faced so many challenges both internal and external, as we do today.

Climate change. War. Housing. Inequality. Economic complexity. Lack of opportunity for students. Lack of leadership. Manipulation of information and media. Digital disruption.

We need to connect and focus the brainpower we have in our universities, in businesses, high schools and incubators and use it to create and support a broader mix of high value, high reward industries to complement the mining industry in Australia.

For 12,000 years we have managed the "creative principle" of potential, innovation and growth in plants and animals successfully, without restricting that principle, but modifying it through plant and animal selection, mating, fertilising, watering, weeding, culling and selling the end product into markets = Agriculture.

Twelve thousand years on, the management of the "creative principle" in agriculture is not perceived as a problem by anybody very much. It is seen as a benefit.

The process of farming recognises and respects the power and potential of seeds and embryos and nurtures and directs that power for greater good.

That same approach can be taken with an economy, recognising, respecting and supporting the “creative principle” - ideas, innovations, evidence, management - and applying it across societies for greater benefit.

If you take politics out of it - which is where the confusion about economic management exists, the digital revolution provides for the first time the tools to manage an economy just like a farm or garden, maximising the productive benefit of national assets.

We have shown that we can manage assets on a single farm, so why can't we manage national economic assets in a country?

We can.