Australian liberalism: ideas from across the political spectrum

While the economic Right highlights how competitive economic policies have aided business investment, employment, and even lower prices for many manufactured goods, one cannot deny the enormous difficulty ahead for policy-makers as an ever-increasing minority of Australians face record home unaffordability and higher prices for food, electricity and utilities.

Quite clearly, any ongoing move towards lower taxation levels as a percentage of GDP, further industrial relations reform to lower wages in time, and a higher reliance upon debt - give that Australia’s household debt to disposable income ratio has already increased from about 38 per cent in 1983 to 160 per cent by December 2007 - can only go so far.

A decline in the standard of living for many Westerners is likely to lead to greater demands for greater government intervention.

This is despite the US, EU (25 nations), Japan, Canada and Australia still comprising about 69 per cent of world GDP (nominal terms) in 2007 compared to 13 per cent for the four largest developing economies (China, Brazil, Russia and India) with their large populations.

But whether Australia can maintain its level of wealth through a greater adherence to freer trade or not, it will be the ongoing interaction between interest groups, political parties and public opinion that will decide the economic, social and environmental needs that are deemed most important to any nation.

Contrary to the assertion by Professor Kishore Mahbubani in his 2008 book The New Asian Hemisphere that the East has now surpassed the West in terms of implementing best practices in many areas including adherence to free-market economics, technology, meritocracy, and the rule of law, Australia can continue to provide a positive Western national example that demonstrates how a democratic society can achieve consensus and address a variety of policy needs.

As the rich of Russia, China and India will hopefully realise sooner rather than later, it is the acceptance of pluralism which is indeed the strength of any Western society.

And contrary to the views of the economic Right who mock or downplay government intervention, a clear majority expects government policies that can balance a nation’s economic competitiveness with compassion in order that battlers are not excluded. This is why the Coalition - despite its greater willingness to promote the needs of business when compared to Labor - has sought to increase its popularity in recent weeks by pushing Labor to increase the single pension by $30 a week.

But we can never assume that Australia’s economic success will continue, or that Labor and Coalition governments will always meet Australia’s social welfare needs, as has been evident in recent decades by child-related payments and assistance to low-income families increasing from 60 per cent of the OECD average in 1980 to 160 per cent in 2001 after being 140 per cent in 1994.

We only have to look to the US to understand why Australia’s liberal democratic potential can never be taken for granted, although we should never downplay the crucial role that the US has played in providing military security and the biggest economic market for many decades.

Though the US has one of the higher per capita levels of GNI in the world (25 per cent higher than Australia in 2006 even in purchasing power parity terms), it has the highest rate of prison incarceration in the world with more than 1 per cent of adults in jail or prison by the end of 2007, low minimum wages, and no universal health care system with an estimated 47 million Americans under the age of 65 still without health cover despite US spending on health comprising 16 per cent of its GDP.

The need for commentary which supports the virtues of pluralism - which after all has allowed various interest groups to promote ongoing interest in various social welfare issues - is why any biased political commentary should be exposed for its simplicity, especially when it expresses anti-democratic sentiment.