Australia and the Northeast Asian ascendancy: Report to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade

by Ross Garnaut

Before there was the gushing ''China rising'' industry of Sino super-optimists, there was Ross Garnaut. When he wrote his landmark report for the Hawke government 20 years ago he was considered positively giddy about the prospects for the big economies of North Asia. His views were considered so radical, so disruptive, he received death threats. Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendancy seemed to be a masterpiece of bad timing when published in November, 1989. Beijing had just crushed the protesters of Tiananmen Square, and a savage sell-off on the Tokyo stockmarket sounded the death-knell of Japan's 40-year boom. By contrast, the Berlin Wall had fallen. There was a frisson of expectation that global dynamism would shift from Asia to a newly unified Europe. Yet here was an Australian academic so confident about the region's shining future, he urged the Hawke government to completely restructure the Australian economy to take advantage of coming growth in North-East Asia. Advertisement Among his prescriptions? Australia needed to eliminate tariffs and cut business assistance to zero. This would lift productivity and efficiency. Business groups screamed blue murder. Neo-Nazis threatened actual ''You are out to destroy Australia, so we are going to kill you,'' came one threat. Garnaut saw potential for an extra $20 billion in Australian exports to North-East Asia. That seemed bold; Australia's merchandise exports to the region were $25 billion at the time. Read

339 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Ross Garnaut is Professorial Research Fellow in Economics at the University of Melbourne. In 2008, he produced the Garnaut Climate Change Review for the Australian government. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling Dog Days (2013).

Reviews

[Craig Hodges · Rating 3 out of 5]

An influential report.