A key figure behind the economic reforms that helped Australia stay out of recession for nearly a quarter of a century has used the release of the Hawke cabinet papers from 1988-89 to warn about the risk of a disastrous ­economic slowdown.

Ross Garnaut said the community urgently needed to recognise that the long period of economic prosperity was over and a new national consensus on tough economic reform was needed. He said it was vital the ­government rethink what he called its “club-footed" methods of dealing with the budget ­crisis, saying it had undermined the prospects of getting community support for the economic reform.