In this episode of the Australia Together Podcast on Substack, I read Parts 5 to 7 of Chapter 6 of my latest book, The Public Interest Economy: the path to wellbeing, security and sustainable consumption in a democratised Australian economy.
Chapter 6 sets out a program of democratic institutional reform that will enable Australians to maximise their chances of building an economy in the public interest.
The program is built on a foundation of six pillars of reform:
Pillar 1 involves centring macroeconomic policy and governance in the federal Treasury (as opposed to the reserve bank) so as to integrate the operation of fiscal and monetary policy by use of effective functional finance.
Pillar 2 is to revise the National Competition Policy so as to reverse the damage wrought by neoliberalism on services essential for the wellbeing of all Australians.
Pillar 3 is to strike a National Accord on Wealth, Welfare and Wellbeing – an agreement between the people of Australia and their governments on the principles of fairness in economic decision making.
Pillar 4 is to establish an Independent Commission for National Democratic Engagement and Integrated Planning to give all Australians a forum in which they can:
exercise their voices as equals in democracy; and
collaborate to build a coherent long term plan to safely secure everyone’s wellbeing and that of the planet.
Pillar 5 is to establish a National Economic Transitions Commission to enable Australians to safely shift from unsustainable to sustainable economic compositions as and when needed.
Pillar 6 is to establish a National Public Interest Collaboration – a democratic process by which Australians and their governments can collaborate to build an economy in the public interest, starting by establishing a social new deal in which Australians and governments agree to introduce a fair universal basic income matched with fair tax reform, and in the process, secure affordable access for all to the services that are essential for their health and wellbeing, including most notably fee-free tertiary education.
In this episode
Last week I spoke about Pillars 1 and 2 of the reform program. In this episode I cover Pillars 3, 4 and 5.
Pillars 3 and 4 are vital for ensuring that Australians will be able to trust in their governments in the future and participate as equals in their own democracy to maximise the capacity of their economy to deliver wellbeing fairly for all.
Pillar 5 is essential for the safe transition of Australians to a sustainable economy in the face of coming global crises.
In the next and final episode I will cover Pillar 6 and list what governments will need to do to release Australians from the yoke of neoliberalism before it becomes impossible to create a sustainable future on the Earth.
Democratic institutional reform is essential to defeat neoliberalism
All strategies suggested in The Public Interest Economy have been developed as an efficient and coordinated response to neoliberalism. This is in recognition of the tremendous damage to our welfare, wellbeing, security, and safety caused by neoliberal policies and the neoclassical economic falsehoods that underpin those policies.
Australia’s Labor government of 2025 has recognised the need to move past neoliberalism but they show no capacity or competence for the task. To escape neoliberalism we will need urgently to plan our way out of it and it will take five to ten years before we can reverse enough of the damage it has caused, particularly under policies which promote inequality, privatisation of natural monopolies, and excessive consumption of scarce resources. All that will need to be reversed.
The six pillars of reform suggested in Chapter 6 are core to our chances of defeating neoliberalism. They are our quickest way out of catastrophe because they allow us to democratise our economy. In turn, that will allow Australians to overcome the political failures that have arisen from the capture of our governments by corporations.
Pillar 3 – The National Accord on Wealth, Welfare and Wellbeing
The National Accord on Wealth Welfare and Wellbeing is designed to give decision makers that enter public office a standard by which they can assess the policies and the laws they make, at least as far as they will affect Australia’s economy and its capacity to deliver wellbeing for all.
The transformational power of an Accord about fairness in economic decision making should not be underestimated. At the very least, it will establish a standard by which the people of Australia can compare political platforms in reference to the public interest. With the Accord, every decision can be assessed as to whether it will protect, promote and secure the economic and social wellbeing of all members of the community by demonstrated respect for principles of fairness and inclusion in democracy.
The National Accord on Wealth, Welfare and Wellbeing is also essential if Australians expect to be able to create a new social contract with their governments and an economy that will deliver wellbeing for all. Neoliberal economic policies cannot deliver that. The Accord is essential if we are to free our economy and ourselves from the yoke of neoliberalism.
Listen to more about the National Accord on Wealth, Welfare and Wellbeing in Episode 66 of the Australia Together Podcast.
Want to know what this sort of Accord might include? View a starting draft of the Accord which can be used to kick-start community discussion in Appendix 1 of the ACFP question and answer sheet, What is the proposal in Australia Together for a National Accord on Wealth, Welfare and Wellbeing?
Find the latest information about the National Accord on Wealth, Welfare and Wellbeing here or at https://austcfp.com.au/supporting-activities#national-accord
Pillar 4 – The Independent Commission for National Democratic Engagement and Integrated Planning
Australians need an entryway into their own democracy. We need a process that enables any and every Australian to participate efficiently as political equals in decisions that affect our future. We need a mechanism which enables us to describe our preferred future as a national Australian community and to set up a plan for safe passage to that future. We then need to be able to present this plan to the government as our preferred long term agenda for our welfare and wellbeing.
The only process that will enable Australians to do that, independent of political influence and corporate corruption, is long term National Integrated Planning & Reporting (National IP&R).
However, we also need open access to a respected, independent institution which organises the use of National IP&R so that:
the quality of our planning is assured and evidence-based; and
access to the process for building long term plans is open to and accessible by all.
This is the function of the Independent Commission for National Democratic Engagement and Integrated Planning proposed in:
Chapter 6 of The Public Interest Economy, and
Chapter 7 of The People’s Constitution.
Australians need a democratically open and transparent public forum in which they can collaborate as equals to develop properly integrated plans for their safe arrival in a better future and then present them to governments as their preferred long term agenda for their welfare and wellbeing. The plans that can be developed and continually revised by use of National IP&R can give voice to that agenda. They can give the people a voice in their democracy, a voice that extends their influence beyond mere voting and ensures that their agenda becomes at least as pervasive in political discourse as the agendas of those with corporate interests.
Listen to more about National Integrated Planning & Reporting in Episode 65 of the Australia Together Podcast.
Pillar 5 – The National Economic Transitions Commission
Thirty years of neoliberalism in Australia, where the private sector has been allowed to call the shots on the mix of industries in Australia’s economy, has not done Australians or their economy any favours. In terms of our wellbeing, neoliberalism’s track record has been a shocker.
It is clear that when the private sector drives the economy and the market is allowed to “pick winners”, they will pick what will win for them in terms of profits, regardless of whether the public interest is served by their choice. Hence the share of national wealth going to corporate profits has almost doubled this century and the share going to wages has fallen. The share devoted to preserving our wellbeing has also fallen steeply as shown in The State of Australia 2025.
The people of Australia have suffered because of a false faith in markets and the private sector by a succession of incompetent governments who refuse to take the lead on composing an economy in the public interest. And the volume of wellbeing delivered by the economy will continue to fall unless the federal government establishes an independent commission to take charge of our economic composition in the public interest.
The industries that have been favoured by the private sector under neoliberalism might be winners for some businesses; but taken together, they are losers for us.
The solution is:
A National Economic Transitions Commission should be established.
A National Sustainable Industries Index should be developed.
A program of actions to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 should be developed and federally funded.
Australia’s economy is as vulnerable as any other to global economic disruptions such as wars, climate change, and pandemics. But there is no overarching authority with a charter to assess the risks arising from Australia’s economic composition and to develop plans for transition from one composition to another so as to reduce exposure either to global shocks or known critical threats. The absence of an authority with centralised responsibility for economic composition and transitions is a serious weakness in economic management. It leaves Australia, at best, in the position of being confined to reactive crisis management, rather than proactive design programs for a resilient economy.
Unless Australian governments organise themselves to call the shots on economic composition in the public interest, they will just keep making huge mistakes – like allowing the sacking of 40,000 jobs in tertiary education, and huge expansion of gas and weapons exports industries. Australians have derived no benefit at all from those mistakes.
A National Economic Transitions Commission guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and a National Sustainable Industries Index is essential if we are to stop the constant hijacking of our economy in favour of market profiteers and parasitic, unproductive corporate rent seekers.
A National Sustainable Industries Index would establish criteria for selection of the best composition of the economy if it is to work in the public interest. Chapter 6 provides examples of criteria that would help the government select the right mix of industries.
A National Sustainable Industries Index would be vital in assisting the government to design a plan for removing industries from the overall mix if they pose too great a risk to the economy and nature. This would provide notice, a decade ahead of any necessary exit from a market, which in turn would enable the Commission to develop plans for safely shepherding everyone from one industry composition to the next, including by providing transition funding and compensation if an industry should be shut down (because it is unsustainable) and safety nets for workers affected by the transition. This would be especially handy as the world transitions to greater use of artificial intelligence (AI).
With the rise of AI, governments will need to be especially adroit in transitioning workers safely from one sectoral composition to another. Indeed, no government should even think about entering the age of AI without the assistance of a highly skilled institution for safely shepherding everyone through economic transitions. It would be the height of irresponsibility, especially as the rise of AI will coincide with the rise of another great age of economic disruption – the age of climate change.
Australia’s economic composition has become dangerously narrow under neoliberalism. We do not a have as much resilience in the economy as we need.
Australia has a high risk economy in a high risk world. The lack of self-sufficiency really ought to give us all pause.
Australia’s governments need to take a more hands-on approach to steering the economy.
It is the government that needs to do the choosing on the composition of the economy. The government needs to be picking the winners on the public’s behalf, if only because the private sector, under the sway of neoliberalism, has obviously failed Australians – a fact to which Dr Chalmers has admitted.
Hesitancy in taking hold of the steering wheel when the world is on the brink of global extinctions is the height of irresponsibility and, indeed, cowardice. But this fear can be overcome with institutional reforms that put the government into the driver’s seat of the economy.
The public and private sectors will both benefit if the government opts to establish a National Economic Transitions Commission. It would need to ensure that the Commission is free from conflicts of interest arising from the private sector, but if it is armed with a National Sustainable Industries Index and a long term plan for economic transitions, it will be able to steer the economy to everyone’s benefit.
Stay in touch for the next episode - only one more to go!
Next Episode: Chapter 6, Part 8 and the Epilogue to the book. This will cover:
Pillar No. 6 – the Australian Public Interest Collaboration, and
the list of what governments will need to do to release Australians from the yoke of neoliberalism before it becomes impossible to create a sustainable future on the Earth.
Listen to a full reading of The Public Interest Economy
You’ll be able to listen to a complete reading of The Public Interest Economy in weekly instalments.
If you wish to keep reading, the full book has already been published and is available on Kindle here. The paperback is available for mail-order here or click on the picture below. Or visit the Australian Community Futures Planning website to purchase The Public Interest Economy at https://austcfp.com.au/publications#public-interest-economy
Useful insights into The Public Interest Economy
Click on the picture to listen to a radio interview with Bronwyn Kelly about The Public Interest Economy.
