To bridge the divide between the policy makers and their public, we need to have a dialogue between the two worldviews. Exposing economic rationalism's ideology, its values and some of its flaws is not enough. Revealing that it has different views on justice and quality of life is only the beginning. The outcry against economic rationalism has been on for more than a decade. Six years after the Howard government was swept to office on the backlash against it, it is as powerful as ever. If Australia is to make its way past the current political impasse, it needs the advocates of the respective views to be able to talk to each other. To speak the same language. To understand one another. And to be able to work together on constructive pathways to the future. It is only by bringing the two worldviews together that we will find a shared way forward. This can seem a daunting task. But it is not as insurmountable as first appears.

In building this shared language we have little choice but to take on economic rationalism on its own terms. Over the last 10 years there have been countless efforts to smoke the economic rationalists out of the bunker of the exclusive parliamentary triangle, to engage them in the punters' worldview. But the attempts have failed. The economic rationalists have not felt the need to reach out and embrace the ideas of their critics.