Wheeler Centre talk explores economic restoration

ECONOMIST Professor Ross Garnaut will present at the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute next month as part of their partnership with The Wheeler Centre.

Discussing the themes of his latest book, Reset: Restoring Australia after the Pandemic Recession, the University of Melbourne educator will be in conversation with ABC Ballarat chief of staff Prue Bentley.

They’ll explore Garnaut’s ideas for best COVID economic recovery, resulting in a stronger, more equal, thriving nation.

“The book describes the shock that both we, and the world, had in economic matters, which was bigger than anything we’ve ever had in such a short period before,” he said.

“We didn’t do very well in the seven years before the pandemic, with unemployment stuck just over five per cent, when other developed countries started much higher, and then went much lower than us. Household income, per person, didn’t rise for seven years either, which is unusual.

“How do we get out of the pandemic economic shock, and what sort of an Australia do we want? It would be a mistake for us to go back to what we had going the way of America and Britain, where long periods of economic stagnation gave rise to governments unable to act in the national interest.”

Professor Garnaut said adopting pre-COVID policies will mean further foreign debt, an even more difficult trade situation, universities will be financially “crippled” where they’re usually “dynamic” sources of export growth, and trade of coal and gas will drop as the “rest of the world” works to reduce their carbon footprint.

“Where we were is not good enough,” he said.

“We should change our monetary and fiscal policy, make full employment our real objective, and the Reserve Bank’s objective, and we should be prepared to run quite big budget deficits until we have full employment..

“We need to change some aspects of our tax and social security system to encourage people to work more, give more support to working people on lower incomes, and more heavily tax activities that are not really contributing to investment and economic growth.

“The third thing we have to do is embrace the new opportunities for zero emissions exports. Australia’s in a special position; we have better sun and wind than in other countries, so we should be the low energy cost country of the world.”

BMI co-vice-president Paula Nicholson said Julian Burnside presented pre-pandemic at the previous, and first, Wheeler Centre talk in Ballarat.

This was well-attended, and the BMI board is looking forward to the next event of the series with Professor Garnaut.

“We are delighted to partner with the Wheeler Centre to bring high quality speakers to Ballarat, to share relevant and current issues, and encourage public discussion and learning,” she said.

Professor Garnaut will present on Wednesday, 2 June from 6pm to 7pm at the BMI. Book tickets at wheelercentre.com or ballaratmi.org.au.