In a recent article on the The Conversation web site, several senior policy researchers have put forward a proposal to scrap the Productivity Commission and replace it with a Sustainable Development Commission . The central core of their proposal, however, is not just about renaming an institution -- it is about a paradigm change in how we think about economic growth and development: from the current neoclassical economic paradigm to a new … [Read more...]
Queensland election: May this be the stake through the heart of neoliberal dogma
Queensland citizens have decisively rejected the privatisation agenda of the Liberal National Party led by Campbell Newman. Is it too much to hope that this result, combined with the ferocious opposition of public opinion and the Senate to the Abbott Federal government's hard right neoliberal budget, finally signal to political and business elites that the Australian people reject the neoliberal agenda of privatisations, reduced environmental … [Read more...]
Shining a light on the extremist program of neoliberalism
The arrival of the Tony Abbott-led Liberal National Party (LNP) government in Australia means the ideology of neoliberalism is once again to the fore. Neoliberalism is the dominant ideological matrix of our age, having insinuated itself into the global ‘common sense’. It is the driving ideological force behind the now familiar government (of all shades) focus in recent decades on marketization, privatization, and deregulation. Although the Labor … [Read more...]