Australian Public Policy

Progressive Ideas in the Neoliberal Ascendency

Chris Miller, Lionel Orchard, Miller, Chris, Orchard, Lionel, Chris Miller, Lionel Orchard

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781447321101
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

At a time when neoliberal and conservative politics are again in the ascendency and social democracy is waning, Australian public policy re-engages with the values and goals of progressive public policy in Australia and the difficulties faced in re-affirming them. It brings together leading authors to explore economic, environmental, social, cultural, political and indigenous issues. It examines trends and current policy directions and outlines progressive alternatives that challenge and extend current thinking. While focused on Australia, the contributors offer valuable insights for people in other countries committed to social justice and those engaged in the ongoing contest between neo-liberalism and social democracy. This is essential reading for policy practitioners, researchers and students as well those with an interest in the future of public policy.

Part One

SETTING THE SCENE

ONE

Towards a new progressive policy agenda

Chris Miller and Lionel Orchard

Introduction

Australian politics and public policy are at an impasse and face many challenges given economic, political and social turbulence in both the domestic and global spheres. The overwhelming defeat of the Rudd Labor Government in the 2013 federal election and the decisive election of a Liberal–National Party Coalition Government led by Tony Abbott as Australia’s 28th Prime Minister make the likelihood of progressive public policy a more distant prospect. Yet Labor’s defeat is also an opportunity for progressives to think again about public policies addressing the key issues of today. This book brings together leading authors strongly engaged in public debate to examine trends, generate insights about current policy directions, and articulate ideas for a new progressive policy agenda. While mindful of the complexity and dilemmas entailed in such a project, and the deep-rooted dominance of neoliberal thinking over many years, pursued to varying degrees by both Labor and Liberal Coalition Governments, our aim is to help build analysis of the ways in which such an agenda can be pursued. With some exceptions (for example, McClelland and Smyth, 2010), recent discussions of Australian public and social policy have been mainly built around, on the one hand, change and improvement in public policy processes, and on the other hand, contributions from journalists and politicians reflecting on contemporary political and policy directions and dilemmas (for example Kelly, 1994, 2009; Tanner, 2011; Gallop, 2012; Megalogenis, 2012). There are also various contributions to the policy debates about economic rationalism and centrist and centre-left alternatives, material to be discussed in more detail later. We hope this book contributes critical insights building on these perspectives. This chapter, along with Mark Davis’s contribution (Chapter 2), sets the scene, providing some context about contemporary Australian public policy.

The history, socioeconomic and political context of nation states leads each to respond to what may appear as common dilemmas in slightly different ways. Our focus is on Australia but without losing sight of debates and policies elsewhere. We believe that after 30 years of neoliberal ideas and policies holding sway, it is important that in seeking a progressive public policy future, we return to the universalist foundational values of social democracy on which post-war policy was largely framed but modified and extended to give prominence to sustainability, equity, gender and caring principles. In these ways, we hope that the book contributes to the re-imagination of social democratic values and public policies for the changed circumstances of the 21st century. It is also important to consider what kind of institutional frameworks and public institutions are required to deliver new progressive policies. How do social democratic values shape different policy domains, how far have these values been undermined and with what effect, for example in relation to the downgrading of mainstream provision and the elevation of more marginal concerns? How important is the ‘high wage/low tax’ formulation that has shaped so much recent policy in Australia and beyond to thinking about progressive policy in the future? Any progressive programme will also need to address the obsession with unsustainable consumption and economic growth that so far have been marginal in the development of public policy. Our premise is that if Australia can address such challenges it will be able to continue its rich tradition as a social laboratory and retain its distinctiveness.

The actions and inactions of the Rudd and Gillard Governments, and the response of the Coalition parties then in opposition, raised serious questions about policy process, direction and implementation. In what feels like a period of permanent global uncertainty focused on global financial and environmental instability, and both forced and voluntary migration, many of the values, principles and policy tools dependent upon full employment, social solidarity, and a young and growing population have come to be questioned. Given that public policy seems to have lost the surefootedness it once may have had and with few signs that neoliberal thinking has run its course, we set out to address three interrelated questions: how can we better understand what has been happening across important policy domains; to what extent are current policies fit for purpose in such uncertain times; and how might progressive policies be defined and defended in such circumstances? In what follows, responses to these questions in the contributions to the book are woven through a more detailed account of the history, current directions and possible futures in Australian public policy.

In addition to the ‘Setting the Scene’ chapters (Part One) and the final chapter, the book has four main parts.

In Part Two, ‘Economics, Welfare and Work’, John Quiggin considers the continuing capacity of neoliberal economics to prosper despite its numerous failures, while Barbara Pocock, Janine Chapman and Natalie Skinner revisit the relationship between work and unpaid care. Ben Spies-Butcher examines the impact of neoliberalism on welfare policy and attitudes towards those not in paid employment, while John Buchanan and Damian Oliver argue that industrial relations policy, a critical feature of the Australian Settlement, has been deeply damaged by neoliberal policies.

Part Three, ‘Culture and Society’, has contributions from Jon Altman on the ways in which neoliberalism has underpinned contemporary Indigenous policy, and George Crowder, who considers the potential impact of greater social and cultural diversity on public policy and Australian identity. Deborah Brennan examines the marketisation of childcare, while Louise Watson and Charlotte Liu demonstrate how neoliberalism has shaped education policy. Fran Baum and Judith Dwyer explore how health policy has steered a pragmatic course through competing ideological approaches and Lionel Orchard reviews the tensions in housing policy, where private ownership and housing as an individual capital asset dominate thinking to the exclusion of many from decent accommodation.

Part Four, ‘Environment, Population and the Cities’ addresses some key challenges for a sustainable Australia. Ian Lowe considers the debate on population growth, a debate concerned not solely with optimum numbers for economic and environmental sustainability but also with social diversity, asylum seekers and identity. As cities take on a growing significance globally, sometimes appearing to compete with the nation state as centres of power and significance, Paul Burton and Jago Dodson consider Australia’s approach to urban development and the potential impact of an emergent national urban policy. Using water reform in the Murray-Darling Basin as an exemplar, Daniel Connell considers Australia’s inability to grapple with the shifts required in natural resource management as a consequence of previous overexploitation and future climate change. Ralph Horne and Colin Fudge provide important international perspectives and comparisons for the development of more sustainable environmental and urban policy in Australia.

Part Five, ‘Politics and Government’, centres on the challenges facing public policy given existing institutional arrangements and political relationships. James Walter and Zareh Ghazarian identify the decline in trust between governments and citizens as a critical concern, and in particular challenge the dominant models of leadership characteristic of contemporary neoliberalism. Robyn Hollander argues that given growing centralism there is a need to revisit the strengths of federalism and the capacity of state governments to act creatively and with local knowledge. Chris Miller argues that the restoration of trust and better policy making is possible if governments at all levels engage more fully with citizens to address current and future dilemmas.

Finally, our concluding chapter distils common themes reinforcing the key arguments and their significance for the future of public policy while acknowledging that not all aspects of Australian public policy have been examined in the book.

Australian policy accommodations

The Australian outlook is often portrayed as pragmatic and adaptable. This is certainly true in the history of Australian politics and public policy. While metropolitan ideas and ideologies, often transposed from other countries, have inevitably shaped Australian political and policy practice, as indeed Australian policy and practices have been influential elsewhere and especially in the UK, there has always been some scepticism about their relevance and their more or less careful adaptation to the Australian setting. The ‘Australian Settlement’, or more accurately the ‘Australian white British/European Settlement’ to the extent that it rested on the continuing negation of Indigenous Australians and, for many years, a strictly enforced monocultural ethnic immigration policy, reflects this ‘pragmatism’. As with all things political, the ‘Settlement’ reflects important values and principles resulting from social and political struggle. For those who qualified for membership, the Settlement was grounded in notions of social and economic protection, faith in government, but ambiguity and caution about an expanded and interventionist state, commitment to the egalitarian ‘fair go’, within the context of relatively low levels of ‘unearned’ inequality, and a strong system of industrial arbitration

– coming together in what some have called the Australian ‘wage-earners welfare state’ (Castles, 1985, 1988; Kelly, 1994; Buchanan and Oliver, this collection)

These ingredients acted as a starting point for future change and was to some extent only possible in a settler society that, while adopting some features from its colonial inheritance, was relatively ‘legacy free’, especially in respect of the lived and assumed practices of class. Australia’s size and geographical diversity and the consequent challenges for governance, reinforced by different settlement histories of convict and free migration, isolation and distance from its colonial master and ongoing dependence on labour and new migrants to reproduce and build the colony, made for some unique foundations for a nation state. They were all contributory factors to the ‘antipodean’ experiment, as was the need to impose social and political order (see Fenna, 2012, for reflections on the distinctiveness and similarities of the Australian ‘Settlement’ in these respects by comparison with experiences in other settler societies).

Pragmatism can be viewed as sound judgment in relation to seemingly opposed political ideologies applied appropriately to the specificity of the Australian situation, or the outcome of reasoned reflection on the effectiveness and appropriateness of various political practices and institutions found elsewhere. It can also be read as whatever is politically feasible at a given moment, the outcome of political conflict and opportunity. More recently, rather than take political decisions based on assessment of what is required long-term to address actual or potential major policy issues and dilemmas, pressing ahead sometimes against powerful interests, the pragmatic outlook might be seen as more closely allied to preferences for short-term fixes echoing opinion polls, focus groups and views in the popular media so as to avoid the risks of electoral displeasure.

Whether the pragmatism and adaptability has been principled and sound or more thinly based and rushed, the Australian political and public policy experience in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has taken place against a quite different ideological backdrop. Since the late 1970s, public policy has been powerfully influenced by the dominant ideology of the times – the neoliberal defence of negative freedom, markets, deregulation, privatisation and small government – and what Jon Altman (Chapter 7) refers to as the ‘Canberra consensus’, that might appear as a smaller and less polished mirror of its Washington counterpart. At its heart is a set of economic ideas of which the free market and small government are the linchpins. John Quiggin (Chapter 3) succinctly sets out the macroeconomic principles of neoliberalism, or what he calls ‘market liberalism’, and the persuasive hold they now have internationally despite their failure over time and in multiple places, with the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) the latest and most extreme manifestation of that failure.

In practice, neoliberalism is a dynamic, complex, multifaceted, even contradictory set of ideas, variously applied as a distinctive political project across different countries. Its proponents have had to work hard to secure the positions of power and influence necessary both to put policies in place and to win the ideological arguments, something that has never been entirely achieved. Mark Davis (Chapter 2) shows in some detail the arguments and interests shaping the neoliberal political project, not a ‘natural’ phenomenon but something carefully constructed, and the way neoliberal ideas and assumptions have found their way into everyday language and expectations. Similarly, Jon Altman (Chapter 7) illustrates this process in respect of Indigenous policy while Louise Watson and Charlotte Liu, Fran Baum and Judith Dwyer, and Daniel Connell (Chapters 10, 11 and 15) show how policy language and directions in education, health care and water management have acquired neoliberal inflections.

While neoliberalism has shaped much change in recent Australian public policy, the pragmatic accommodation of competing principles and values continues to be evident. With the exception perhaps of the Howard Government, the policies and directions of the Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard Governments – Labor or minority Labor Governments – have navigated the increasingly relentless demands of the global turn to neoliberalism without entirely abandoning the legacy of social democracy. What the Liberal Coalition Government, elected in 2013, will do remains unclear, although a number of the leading spokespeople, but not always Prime Minister Tony Abbott, defend neoliberal standpoints unequivocally.

The Hawke and Keating Governments (1983–1996) attempted to balance a neoliberal emphasis with social democratic commitments. The then relatively protected and thus vulnerable and rigid Australian economy experienced major deregulation and exposure to global markets, while key public institutions were privatised. This was combined with the ‘trilogy’ commitment to reduce the size of the government deficit and expenditure and limit levels of taxation. It was pursued alongside a tripartite corporatism – the ‘Accord’ – that sought to balance business and labour interests and pursue creative and progressive social policies in welfare, health and education. The Hawke/Keating policy mix was an early expression of ‘third way’ or ‘new social democratic’ thinking that became so influential in the UK, Europe and later, albeit briefly during Clinton’s presidency, the USA.

The policies of the liberal–conservative Howard Government (1996– 2007) were more explicitly neoliberal in many respects, as reflected in the pursuit of fiscal discipline and budget surpluses, labour market deregulation, and welfare and public sector reform. Nevertheless, the Howard Government encountered numerous limitations when it came to policies as opposed to rhetoric and struggled in particular with the attempt to further reform labour relations beyond the Keating changes (see John Buchanan and Damian Oliver, Chapter 6). Howard remained conservative or populist in other areas – particularly on the issues of immigration and refugees, although it is common practice for neoliberal governments, for example in the USA and the UK, as well as other political entities such as the European Union, to impose strict regulations on who can participate in the free movement of labour, a policy often seen as being at the core of neoliberalism. As Mark Davis argues, it is more accurate to speak of neoliberal conservatism than the more restricted economic formulations of neoliberalism. Likewise, Howard was not averse to state intervention, as illustrated by his Indigenous policies. Running against the grain of his espoused neoliberalism, Howard’s ‘Northern Territory Intervention’ was justified as a response to a ‘crisis’ of child abuse and community disintegration, despite the lack of effort to connect the policy with the stated problem. However, as Jon Altman argues, the intervention was not without a neoliberal infusion.

The election of the Rudd Labor Government in 2007 saw some winding back of neoliberal policies in industrial relations and wage setting, a strong Keynesian fiscal response countering the impacts of the GFC on the Australian economy, and more equity and inclusion in welfare and social policy. But the broad policy parameters – positive about markets, sceptical about government intervention – set in the Hawke, Keating and Howard eras proved difficult to shift in fundamental ways. The spectre of climate change rose to prominence during the first decade of the century and was declared by Rudd to be the “greatest moral challenge of our times”. Yet both sides of Australian politics have had difficulty traversing these issues, as evidenced by both the opposition to the Gillard Government’s carbon price legislation and Rudd’s announcement on his brief and ultimately unsuccessful return as Prime Minister in 2013 that he would effectively abandon the policy.

Similarly, Rudd’s proposed mining tax on excessive profits was much watered down by the Gillard Government and there is little sign of government wanting to regulate coal seam gas explorations. Similarly, water reform in the Murray-Darling Basin (see Chapters 15 and 19 by Daniel Connell and Chris Miller), that began with all-party support, underpinned by the Water Act 2007, to return the valuable iconic Basin to a healthy river system, ended in a thoroughly botched pragmatism that failed to tackle the long-standing problem of over-use of water for irrigation. Instead, a powerful farming lobby implacably opposed to reform was appeased. The irony is that these interests will themselves lose out if the basin environment continues to decline. Larger environmental questions about over-consumption and the related obsession with continued economic growth have yet to figure on the agenda of any political party, beyond the Greens. As Ian Lowe (Chapter 13) argues, the political and policy tension between those who argue for further encouragement of economic and population growth and careful management of fragile environmental resources in Australia remains.

Policy inertia and complacency

On the face of it, the Australian public policy orthodoxy through the period since the early 1980s has been broadly successful, particularly in the economic arena. Judged by the latest Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) assessment of the best country in which to live, Donald Horne’s ‘Lucky Country’ metaphor continues to resonate in attitudes of the Australian public and elites, even if some commentators argue that the exploitation of mineral resources as the main basis for Australia’s recent luck has been handled very poorly (Cleary, 2011). A rough bipartisan consensus about the virtues of continuing market-oriented reform is reinforced within mainstream media and intellectual debate. This consensus continues to shape Australian pol...

Table of contents

• Coverpage
• Title page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Contributor biographies
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword by Bernie Fraser
• Part One: Setting the scene
• Part Two: Economics, welfare and work
• Part Three: Culture and society
• Part Four: Environment, population and cities
• Part Five: Politics and government