Australia would commit serious mistakes in anchoring its future to boxed policies, according to former Prime Minister John Howard, stressing that the country's economic programs and international relations must be attuned to reality.

Speaking at the business conference hosted on Tuesday by the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA, Mr Howard shared his thoughts on the pressing issues that confront Australia these days, and chief among them is the upcoming implementation of new tax programs.

The minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) and the carbon, set to roll out July this year, could potentially damage not only the mining industry but also the general Australian economy, the former Liberal Prime Minister said.

"When we were in government we never entertained a super profits tax ... we operated on a principal that there was a rate of tax and everyone should pay it," Mr Howard recalled as he assailed the wisdom of the 30 percent tax that will be collected to specific mining sub-sectors.

For the government to focus its energy on collecting super profits tax bordered to being 'repugnant', the Liberal icon said.

"If you look back on the history of the Australian economy over the past thirty years, I can think of other sectors of the economy where the profits that have been made have been much greater than the profits in the mining industry," Mr Howard was reported by Perth Now as saying on his speech.

He also shot down the fixed $23 per tonne charging configuration of the carbon tax passed by the Parliament last year.

At best, the new tax measure, Mr Howard said, will only reverse the incredible gains of the resource sector, which has become the backbone of the Australian economy.

And the damages, Mr Howard claimed, would be compounded by the Labor government's flawed industrial policies, which have been encouraging unrests in a number of industries, particularly that of the mining industry.

"Abolishing individual contracts, giving increased rights of entry and tipping the balance in favour of almost exclusive reliance on collective bargaining ... has been very damaging," Mr Howard insisted.

He admitted though that certain adjustments in Australian workplace conditions as direct results of the WorkChoices repeal have beneficial.

He warned at the same time that in its quest to maintain excellent economic standing, Australia may be relying too much on one nation, China, which last year has become the country's biggest trading partner.

Australia's trading relation with the Asian economic powerhouse has been fuelling its mining boom, which economists said served as the country's buffer against the onslaught of the last financial downturn in 2008.

Mr Howard, however, warned that Australia would be at fault to be mesmerised by the Chinese magic.

"In more recent years China has overtaken Japan and has become the best market for Australia ... there is no reason why that shouldn't continue, there's a reasonable expectation that that should continue, but we shouldn't lose reality when it comes to China," Mr Howard stressed.

Looking back to as far as 50 years, Mr Howard noted that the Australian economy grew to its present state due to its trade to Japan, erstwhile the country's biggest trading partner prior to the rise of China.

"It's fair to say that we owe more to Japan than we do to China," he asserted.

Hopefully too, Australia would not be steered away from maintaining its historically strong bond with the United States just so the country could keep trading big time with undoubtedly the rising China.

"We need to have good relations with China, we need to be pragmatic in our dealings with China ... but we need of course to retain our very close relationship with the United States, we don't ever want to get into the silly position of having to make a choice," the former Prime Minister explained.

Australia, he added, should keep in mind that despite its vaunted might and influence at the moment, China will have to face its own daunting domestic concerns and "the idea that China will continue to grow exponentially and overwhelm the United States is misplaced."