Michael Stutchbury, editor-in-chief of the Australian Financial Review, launched at the CIS Peter Hendy’s Why Australia Slept: How the Australian community sleep-walked across the decades jeopardising its abundant natural blessings.
Australia is in danger of sleepwalking into the future. For decades, Australia “slept” through a period of high tariff protection and heavily regulated industries. As a result, by the 1970s its relative living standards were in decline. The situation was saved by significant free-market reforms instituted from the 1980s through to the early 2000s. Since the later-2000s, however, the country has been resting on its laurels with only minimal reform. There are danger signals everywhere, from the domestic economy to our international relations and the rise of China. Canberra needs a wake-up call.