Presented by Robert Clark MP		www.robertclark.net

It can't be us in front, can it?

25 February, 1999

For years now, Australians have grown used to being told our economy is under performing and we have to lift our game.

Now, all of a sudden, we find that our economy is outperforming most in the world - our interest rates are low, unemployment is falling and economic growth is strong.

What’s going on? Is it just temporary good luck? Were we being conned all along? Or have we actually done something right for a change?

The fact is that governments of all political persuasions, both State and Federal, have undertaken some significant economic reforms over the last 15 years or so.

Our economy has been opened up to the world. Key utilities, mostly government-owned, have been reformed. Overmanning and inefficiency have been slashed and customer choice introduced. Rail transport, ports, telecommunications, electricity and water industries are giving better, more reliable and cheaper service, helping our businesses to compete in the world.

Secondly, Governments have got their budgets in order. First the States, and then the Commonwealth, have kicked their addiction to borrowing, permitting lower interest rates and removing the spectre of ever-growing debt hanging over the heads of businesses and citizens alike.

Victoria has gone even further, drastically slashed its debt through privatisation, reducing the State’s interest bill and freeing up funds for tax reductions or providing more services.

Thirdly, our attitudes to work have changed. In part this has been due to legislation, although the Senate has limited legislative change. In larger part it has been due to a steadily spreading realisation that we have to work smarter and more flexibly than we used to, and that the old rigidities and demarcations benefit no-one.

No-one knows exactly what the future holds. The Asian economic downturn may well affect us to greater or lesser extent. But whatever happens, the fact is that we have chalked up some real achievements, achievements that give us a better standard of living and the resources to do more as a community.

We must not lose sight of that fact or start taking our gains for granted. If we go back on the reforms we have made, or start to take it easy again while the rest of the world moves ahead, we will find that our gains will quickly ebb away once the hard work and sensible reform that produced them cease.

Robert Clark.