FORMER Victorian premier Jeff Kennett says Australia has missed an opportunity to become a major supplier of food to Asia.
Mr Kennett has outlined three key issues he says Australia has not come to grips with, including a national agriculture policy, a national water policy and development of the education sector.
Instead the country has continued to "bounce along the bottom of the river", Mr Kennett has told a Liberal Party economic forum in Adelaide.
"Nothing irks me more when I travel to Japan or some places overseas and I see the fruit coming from Israel and the flowers in the hotel room coming from New Zealand," he said.
"The very thought that we as a country are not a major provider of food to the region in which we live is a national disgrace.
"It should be part of every government's agenda."
Mr Kennett said the failure to develop a national water policy was "criminal".
"Whether we're human beings or it's the soil on which we stand, the one thing we all need is water,"
"If we're going to develop opportunities we need to have a water policy that will not only secure water supply but then allow us to use that water to open up new areas for growth."
Mr Kennett said he regarded Australia as very much at the crossroads and needing to develop a new focus or face being left behind by the rest of the world.
He said the Australian community was complacent, believing the lifestyle the country enjoyed today would remain forever.
"I'm afraid Australia has continued to bump along the bottom of the river," he said.
