Wrong Way: How Privatisation and Economic Reform Backfired

Leading economists assess the costs and benefits of privatisation, deregulation, marketisation, and other neoliberal reforms that have dominated Australian economic policy since the 1980s.

Since the 1980s, waves of neoliberal 'economic reform' have transformed Australia.

Privatisation, deregulation, marketisation, and the contracting out of government services— for three decades now, there has been widespread agreement among policymakers on the desirability of these strategies. However, the benefits of economic reform are increasingly being questioned. Alongside growing voter disenchantment, new voices of dissent argue that instead of efficiency and improved services, economic reform has led to unaccountable oligopolies, increased prices, reduced productivity, and degradation of the public good.

In Wrong Way, Australia's leading economists and public intellectuals perform a cost-benefit analysis of economic reform across key areas. Have these reforms been worthwhile for the Australian community and its economy? Have they given us a better society, as promised?

'Has privatisation led to more productivity-enhancing competition? Has deregulation increased economic welfare in energy, finance, health, education, and labour markets? Does the lived experience of Australians measure up to the promise of economic reform? The authors answer these questions with conclusions that are both compelling and disturbing.'
— Emeritus Professor Roy Green, University of Technology Sydney

Damien Cahill & Phillip Toner on Economic Reform
Elizabeth Hill & Matt Wade on Early Childhood Education And Care
Stephen Duckett on Private Health Insurance
Phillip Toner on Vocational Education And Training
Jane Andrew & Max Baker on Prisons
Bob Davidson on Aged Care
Paul Davies on Public Sector Engineering
Sue Olney & Wilma Gallet on Employment Services
John Quiggin on Electricity
Jim Stanford on Labour Markets
Evan Jones on Banking
Peter Phibbs & Nicole Gurran on Housing
Lee Ridge on The NBN
Ben Spies-Butcher & Gareth Bryant on Universities
Michael Beggs on Monetary Policy And Unemployment
John Quiggin on Productivity
Peter Brain on Orthodox Economic Models
Patricia Ranald on Free Trade
David Richardson on Foreign Investment
Frank Stilwell on Inequality