Australia came through the Global Financial Crisis with flying colours. This is attributed to the difficult economic reform begun during the Hawke and Keating era. The Rudd Government is the political beneficiary, and no doubt voters at the next election will thank Labor for saving them from much of the economic pain that afflicted other western economies.
It's fair to ask what reforms Kevin Rudd is putting in place to ensure quality of life for the next generation. Undoubtedly he will say that he has done his best to legislate for the ETS but the obstructionist opposition has been getting in the way. But surely his attempt to do the impossible and design a popular ETS would have rendered it barely effective. The Greens argued that no ETS would be better than being stuck with Labor's weakened ETS.
Last week, the Sydney Morning Herald's economics commentator Ross Gittins addressed the Annual Forecasting Conference of the Australian Business Economists. He spoke of Rudd's lack of commitment to reform. Gittins said it is Rudd's 'preoccupation with political objectives' that makes him reluctant to 'do anything that imposes pain on anyone and thus could threaten his popularity'.
'He's a weak leader, lacking ideology and conviction apart from his unquenchable desire to stay in power.'
Gittins told the economists that Rudd 'has no inherent conception of opportunity cost'.
If Hawke and Keating had failed to act on economic reform, the opportunity cost for our generation would have been devastating unemployment now. It is not difficult to imagine, or even calculate, the opportunity cost of the priority Rudd is giving to his own popularity over reform.
One outside observer effectively did this during a recent visit to Australia. He is Philippines-based Father Pedro Walpole, who is Coordinator for the Environment and Natural Resources with the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.
Walpole singled out the Murray-Darling river system as an example of environmental mismanagement that has given Australians a false sense of lifetyle security.
'A river needs water, it affects the entire life of the system. Agricultural production shouldn't have priority over Australia's life,' he said. 'Your main river systems that have been ruined — people do seem to be aware of it, but don't seem to have the capacity to change it. The fundamental commitment doesn't seem to be there.'
Significantly he was not pointing the finger at Rudd or other political leaders, but rather all of us. Collectively, past and present generations