A major issue in this election campaign has been experience. Both parties accept that experience as an economic manager matters, and Howard and Costello regard it as their one trump card.But experience can be misleading if it teaches a rote set of behaviours, and then circumstances suddenly change. The colonisation of Australia almost failed because farmers used their experience in England and Ireland to guide their farming practices in Sydney. The colony only survived because ultimately it adapted its farming practices to this new land (and because it received some help from Indonesia) .
