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Other ForumsSpecial Public Forum – Fair Share: Competing Claims and Australia’s Economic Future
Now is the time for significant economic reform if Australia is to adapt successfully to modern technological change and avoid becoming a country of winners and losers. In much of the western world, increased inequality, economic stagnation and financial instability are the consequences of technological change, globalisation and the massive increase in financial systems. Governments struggle to deal with the unrest this creates and to resolve competing claims for the spoils of growth. Australia’s egalitarian traditions and past reforms have served this country well, but the risks of weakening demand, stagnating living standards and structural unemployment are ever present and require urgent attention. Does Australia have the fiscal and political capacity to achieve a reform agenda? Can the Australian political system manage these vital changes? Will voters support them?