Restructuring the Australian State

Abstract

Since the election of the Hawke Labor government in 1983 the Australian state has undergone a process of restructuring that has affected all levels of government We examine the key features of this process, including the restructuring of the public service, privatization and marketization, market liberalization and National Competition Policy We find that successive federal governments, both Labor and Coalition, have followed a model of change dominated by neo-liberal assumptions about the innate superiority of the private sector and the desirability of opening. Australian markets to the vagaries of a globalizing economic system Profitable public sector assets have been broken up and transferred to the private sector. While this process was marketed in terms of the efficiency benefits to be derived from vigorous competition, the privatized assets are already being reaggregated into what is likely to become an oligopolistic utilities market.

Keywords:

• Australia
• competition policy
• market liberalization
• privatization
• public sector management
• state restructuring