Is the nostalgia surrounding the Button Steel Plan misguided?

"There is a natural tendency for recent improvements in the steel industry's economic performance to be attributed to the steel plan . . . however, a number of signs of improvement were evident before commencement of the plan. The Australian economy moved back into growth in the September quarter of 1983, as did manufacturing production and domestic steel production . . . The sustained depreciation of the Australian dollar since the end of 1984 has been another significant factor in the improved competitive position of the Australian steel industry in both the domestic and export markets."

One might plausibly add the prevailing policy of tariff reductions, and the about‑face of the Hawke government that saw bounties cut, to the list of factors aiding the steel industry's recovery.

To put simply, many policy deliverables or aspired outcomes under the Button plan were not achieved. Any improvements in the steel industry's fortunes during the 1980s could be more plausibly attributable to a general improvement in the economic climate prior to the 1990‑91 recession.

Moving back to the present, the government has already responded to union and industry calls to defy the economic gravity of market circumstances, including by doling out an advance of $300 million on the steel industry's envisaged carbon tax compensation and announcing a manufacturing jobs summit.

The Gillard government has also appointed former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, who presided over the ineffectual 'Smart State' strategy and a failed $1 billion Gladstone magnesium project, as a spruiker for local manufacturing business in resource projects.

But policy ideas of every hue that violate the freedom of Australians to contract with steel suppliers, wherever they may be situated, and thus attain the best economic deal for themselves should be strenuously resisted at every turn.

With the renewed calls for a retreat from free trade resembling a vampire once again rising from its crypt, economic reformers will need to equip themselves with wooden stakes if costly steel socialism is to be averted.