The realities facing Australia are much more dangerous than revealed to the electorate in May. We must recognise the need for policies that we now think impossible. This is an edited extract of his speech at the Jobs and Skills Summit dinner on Thursday night.
We are kidding ourselves about how well our economy is performing, absolutely and relative to other developed countries. True, for nearly three decades from 1991 we experienced the longest economic expansion unbroken by recession of any developed country, ever. That ended in the first half of 2020.
In late 2020 and early 2021, our economy bounced back more quickly from pandemic recession than most developed countries, because our fiscal expansion was bigger and faster. Since then, we have looked ordinary in a troubled developed world.
Loading...
Ross Garnaut is emeritus professor of economics at University of Melbourne. His new book Let’s Tax Carbon and Other Ideas for a Better Australia is published by Black Inc with La Trobe University Press.
