More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Australia isn’t poor: it is rich beyond the imagining of anyone living in the 1970s or ’80s. But so much of that new wealth has been vacuumed up by a few, and so little of that new wealth has been paid in tax, that the public has been convinced that ours is a country struggling to pay its bills. Convincing Australians that our nation is poor and that our governments “can’t afford” to provide the level of services they provided in the past has not just helped to lower our expectations of our public services and infrastructure, it has helped to lower our expectations of democracy itself.
When powerful groups want subsidies, we are told they will create jobs. When powerless groups want better funding for domestic violence shelters or after-school reading groups, they are told of the need to reduce the budget deficit. When powerful groups demand new regulations, we are told it will provide business with certainty, but when powerless groups demand new regulations, they are told it will create sovereign risk.
Businesses don’t hate regulation and red tape; they hate the regulations they hate, and they love the regulations they love. Pretending to hate them all is the best way to distract people from the regulations they want to keep.
After twenty-seven years of continuous economic growth, it is inconceivable that the thing Australia needs most is to “grow our economy” some more. What we really need is to rebuild trust in our institutions and confidence in our country.
