The first decade of the 21st century began with the bursting of the first internet bubble and the Islamic terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. It ended with a global financial crisis that discredited financial capitalism.

For Australia, however, the noughties were dominated by the economic rise of China that generated our biggest resource development boom. Yet the national pay rise that came with this China boom also generated complacency that replaced a remarkable era of policy reform with a new period of political dysfunction.