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December 15, 2010
In No time to rest on our laurels in The Australian Paul Kelly says that Australia needs more reform, if economic growth is to continue. This is yet another variation of Murdoch's message to Australia that the Gillard Government stands for nothing and it is weak. The general argument is put by Chris Berg at the ABC's Unleashed:
the era of reform is over. Our boldness has gone. No longer are we able to push through major economic changes. We have no appetite for challenge. Australian politicians are hesitant to take risks, intimidated by polls, and the Government is cripplingly scared of focus groups and opposition.
What Kelly adds to this is that the result is complacency and blandness.
Kelly states that rarely has the gulf between the power centres of the "insider" culture of the political-media class, which sees the need for more reform, and the "outsider" perspective, which is in a sullen mood, been greater. According to Kelly:
the Labor Party seems confused and divided about the fundamentals; that is, about the sort of society and nation it wants Australia to be. Such economic, social and educational challenges penetrate policy and values. What are Labor's core values? Julia Gillard talks the language of economic reform and educational standards, yet the gap between talk and delivery is vast.
What sort of reform are those in the power centres of the political-media class talking about then? A more sustainable Australia? Shifting to a low carbon economy by investing in renewable energy like China? No way. That is definitely not what is meant.
Reform is economic reform as understood by the Business Council of Australia. That reform is pro-market reform to ensure more labour mobility, less industry assistance, less red tape etc and increasing productivity. Nothing about the Murray-Darling basin or health reform.
Kelly's argument in support of this kind of pro-business reform is that:
The GFC has delivered a shattering intellectual and moral message to the world: while the US is wounded, the European model is crippled. Europe's system of government debt, entrenched welfare, extensive regulation and mushy "tolerance towards all" as its unifying value is broken. Does Labor not see the obvious?
Gee I thought that the global financial crisis dealt a death knell to a neo-liberal mode of governance structured around free market economics, not the crippling of social democracy and Green progressivism. Two years ago governments saved the necks of the world’s financial markets who were begging for help. Now the market is back to intimidating governments and there is a deep resentment against markets and financiers.
The obvious for Kelly is that a declining Europe and a rising Asia means that Australia should embrace the values of personal improvement, economic competition, educational excellence, national pride, strong family ties, cultural traditionalism and rising religious faith. The obvious is that the future lies with conservatism, not the Green progressive social democracy that shapes Labor thinking; a social democracy premised on reducing inequality.
Chris Berg sees little connection between emissions trading and the pro-market reforms of the 1980s:
The reform of the 1980s had one clear and unambiguous goal: to clear up a century of accumulated, unnecessary or entirely counterproductive regulatory burdens. These burdens were holding back Australia’s economic growth, limiting personal income, and entrenching private interests at the public expense.The goal of an emissions trading scheme is very different: to impose burdens on the Australian economy...the great reforms of the 1980s ... were designed to boost, not restrain, economic growth.
Well no. The goal of an emissions trading scheme is to use a market mechanism to facilitate a shift to renewable energies, and away from coal, so as to reduce greenhouse emissions produced by the coal-fired power stations.
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The Gillard government should be doing more to act on its Labor values----a fair go, a just society, a strong economy---rather than just talking about them.