Nationals leader Matt Canavan was so right when he said “I am not interested in an economic reset. Given the state of our country, we need an economic revolution.”
Finally, someone in Canberra thinking big and thinking bold. Tinkering around the edges is simply not going to rebuild Australia into a successful and confident nation, with the self-assuredness and living standards we once enjoyed.
Speaking in the heart of the Canberra swamp at the National Press Club, Canavan, pictured below, declared we need to scrap the net zero madness, protect our industries so we can defend ourselves, and grow our country in many different ways.
What was so critical about Canavan’s address was his willingness to break with the old economic orthodoxy of the 1980s and 1990s when he said: “I don’t think microwaved Milton Friedman will save the day.”
And this is the key point.
The economic reforms of past generations were necessary. But that was when we lived in an industrial, manufacturing-heavy economy.
Now, we live in a largely service-based economy, and a government which is much larger than in the past. The economic liberalism of the past doesn’t match up to the challenges we currently face as a nation.
The reality is that the Western world has been moving to a post-liberal setting for some time now, certainly since the GFC of 2007-08, and arguably since China joined the WTO in 2001.
This move is not an unalloyed good and presents many challenges.
But it is a reality. Look no further than the seismic changes sweeping through the US, Britain and much of continental Europe.
And look at the election in South Australia, which saw democratic populism by way of One Nation trouncing the Liberal Party and taking skin off Labor.
A large and growing minority of the population want a deep, structural change to our political system, and they understand that Australia’s political class has failed.
Senator Canavan’s vision offers a way forward for Australia and, by extension, the Coalition.
