Australia’s economy hangs on whether the Labor Party and trade unions can take a hard look at themselves and return to their roots as Australia’s greatest champions of a national bank. Labor’s 30-year detour down the neoliberal path trod by Hawke and Keating, which included the privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank, set Australia up for the current unfolding disaster.
While the government feigns concern about the economic impact of the pandemic response, and subjective knock-on effects like mental health, it is sitting on its hands as Australia faces a grave unemployment crisis. On 11 August, Treasury Secretary Dr Steven Kennedy gave a confidential assessment, to groups advocating “workplace reform” to aid the coronavirus recovery, that high unemployment will last four to five years.
Australian Unions, the nation’s peak body representing all trade unions, has issued a promising National Economic Reconstruction Plan to revive the economy from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unions are showing they are committed to cooperating with a nationally-led program to create jobs, build infrastructure and expand manufacturing.
A Parliamentary inquiry into diversifying trade and investment is an excellent opportunity for a public discussion of the immense benefits of a national development bank.
Under the emergency conditions of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic in March, the Citizens Party proposed expanding the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) into an emergency national development bank to invest in crucial infrastructure and industry.
