Lead Story
Issue No. 10 - April/May 2003
Lead Story
by Professor Richard Blandy
In this present article I will canvas some issues about the long run future of South Australia for consideration not only by the Summiteers, but also by those members of the broader business and non-business community who will not have the opportunity to participate directly in the Summit itself. In order to do so, it is important, first, to describe the economic terrain that Australia (and South Australia) has traversed over the past 50 years. This will help to explain why there is not an unlimited set of options to choose from in shaping the Strategic Economic Plan.
In the 1950s and '60s, South Australia led Australia in economic and population growth because of the favourable opportunities South Australia offered for the development of manufacturing industry behind the tariff and quota wall erected by Australia in the aftermath of World War II. A large flow of migrants from Britain and other parts of Europe settled in South Australia attracted by the growth of jobs and the promise of a better life away from the ravages of war. A three child, single (male) breadwinner, family norm further underpinned a rapid increase in the number of children and young people.
Interest rates and access to capital were directly and indirectly controlled by the Commonwealth (later Reserve) Bank. Exchange rates were set by the Commonwealth Government. Inflation and unemployment were both low, the latter in particular. Wage rates and employment conditions were controlled by the Arbitration system. The welfare state was active and effective as well. Australia had one of the least unequal distributions of income in the world.
South Australia had a miracle economy, in which its public sector (under Liberal Premier Tom Playford) played a major role in directing the economic development of the State through investment subsidies, infrastructure investment and public housing provided by the South Australian Housing Trust. Influential foreign visitors came to look at ...
