The float of the Australian dollar 40 years ago, which helped set up Australia’s modern prosperity, should be an example for political leaders to realise there are “long-term gains for some short-term pain” from tough economic reforms, says one of the players involved.

David Morgan, a former senior Treasury official who went on to become Westpac chief executive, said the world economy was becoming more competitive and Australia could not afford to rest on the achievements of the Hawke-Keating Labor governments in the 1980s and ’90s.