The era of small government is ending. And Australians want to regain power ceded to the amoral forces of global capitaluried beneath Jim Chalmers’ budget surplus and inflation tightrope is the hint of something more substantial; a bigger idea of government where tighter limits are imposed on the excesses of the free market.
The latest Guardian Essential report reinforces this simmering desire for active leadership, with half of all respondents wanting more active government intervention and just a handful saying they want less. Since the end of the cold war, government has departed the field, privatising essential services, removing support for local workers and industries, wilfully ceding control of national wellbeing to large global corporations and ignoring stagnant living standards while celebrating aggregate growth.that are plaguing the nation. They welcome the budget measures announced last week but are sceptical they will have any real impact on their own financial situation in the face of corporate excess.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, dismisses this as “billions of dollars for billionaires” but, in doing so, he is also conceding the change in era where government has to more forcefully limit the power of capital. While he has been whacking corporate Australia for their commitments to diversity and inclusion, he continues to fight hard for their rights to operate free of industrial constraint.