Towards industrially sustainable development? Industry policy under the Hawke Government.

Abstract

"Industrially sustainable development" means two things: firstly, arriving at and disseminating a satisfactory growth model for the economy and, secondly, defining and negotiating the political trade-offs needed to implement that model. The Hawke Labor government has worked hard at both these tasks but has found itself constrained by a burgeoning current account deficit (itself the result of past failures to restructure the economy) and by the two-edged nature of its accommodation with the Labor movement. The government fell between two stools - unable to deregulate convincingly on the one hand, but unable to implement an activist industry policy on the other. Nevertheless, its achievements, while patchy, have been significant and demonstrate the virtues of "guided incrementalism" as a strategy for change.