By Dick Nichols
SYDNEY — The crash of the paper entrepreneurs of the 1980s — Bond, Skase and the rest — has been accompanied by the waning of "economic rationalism", the doctrine that sanctified the decade of greed.
Now "economic rationalism" is on the defensive. Its political offspring, like Thatcherism and Rogernomics, are seen to have boosted inequality, poverty and unemployment. Paul Keating, heading a Labor government bent on survival, has dropped this lingo of the 1980s in favor of new forms of vaudeville.
Yet despite the swing of the pendulum against "economic rationalism", the opposition has yet to develop and project a coherent alternative to its basic tenets of deregulation, privatisation, regressive taxation and a dwarf public sector.
The forthcoming conference "Alternatives to Economic Rationalism", sponsored by the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) and to be held on May 29-30, may make some progress towards that goal.
The conference is an initiative of CPACS director Professor Stuart Rees, who told Â鶹´«Ã½ that its basic purpose is to "place social justice centre stage" in the ongoing debate about what Australia should stand for.
More particularly, starting from the rejection of "the Los Angeles alternative", the conference will focus on the need for a viable public sector as the foundation for social justice policies.
Rees said that the conference would also aim to"demystify the public-private relationship", the confusion of which is central to right-wing campaigns in support of privatisation. "Exposing this relationship is central to winning the values debate", Rees stressed.
Speakers for the conference include Ted Wheelwright ("Economic Controls for Social Ends"), Nada Roude ("Muslim Women's Perspectives on Justice and Empowerment"), Eva Cox ("Economics of Mutual Support: a Feminist Alternative") and Evan Jones ("Redefining Economics and Economy").
The final afternoon will be devoted to workshops and a summary by Rees. The CPACS director said that he hoped the conference would play its part in revindicating and popularising the burning need for "a vibrant public sector".