CIS Special Publications
Building Prosperity: Australia's Future as a Global Player
Building Prosperity: Australia’s Future as a Global Player, warns that it is dangerous for our policymakers to sit back and expect today's economic momentum to propel us into a prosperous future.
‘Over the past two decades, Australia has been transformed from a protected backwater on the global periphery to an outward-looking player,' says author Professor Wolfgang Kasper. 'Considerable progress towards greater economic freedom has been made, but the reform momentum appears to be flagging.'
An intelligent reading of the history of long waves of economic growth should forewarn us: we ought to think about coping with [inevitable economic downturns] now while the going is good. Globalisation will accelerate and reinforce the impacts of bad policies.
Wolfgang cautions against the current self-satisfied triumphalism in Canberra policy circles, and points to the need for a return to genuine economic reform. The present phase of rapid worldwide innovation and high economic growth is likely to peter out before too long,' he says. When it does, flexible and creative responses in free and open markets will be the only way for Australians to avoid the consequences of a global slowdown.
In Building Prosperity, Professor Kasper advocates cutting back the size of government to 25% of the National Product, the privatisation of all superannuation and pensions, the devolution of many tasks of federal government to the states and local authorities, and compensation to private property owners who are adversely affected by new regulations.
