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Learning from full employment history: The 1945 Australian White Paper in practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

John Nevile
John Nevile*
Affiliation:
The University of New South Wales, Australia
*
John Nevile, School of Economics, UNSW Business School, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Email: j.nevile@unsw.edu.au
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Abstract

The part played by unemployment in the rise to power of Hitler weighed on the minds of leaders in Western democracies. There was a determination to create a world in which large-scale unemployment was abnormal and at worst only a temporary phenomenon. The war had shown that this was possible in a community united to pursue a common goal and the aim was to create such a community in a world free from the horrors of war, by creating communities in which the welfare of every person was important. Australia was remarkably successful in achieving this for 30 years. Its success depended on governments responding to any sustained increase in unemployment by undertaking large increases in public sector expenditure supported by accommodating monetary policy and tax cuts if desirable. In bad times as well as good, there was a determination to ensure that both the incomes and prices paid for necessities by the less well-off did not force anyone to live in poverty. The biggest obstacle to achieving this today is the growth of neoliberalism with its emphasis on ‘freedom’ or giving individuals the ability to act as they please with minimal constraints and an ideological commitment to small government.

Keywords

E02E61N1N4Australiaeconomic historymacroeconomic policyunemploymentWhite Paper
Type
Symposium: The White Paper and Full Employment
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 29 , Issue 4: Symposia: Global Financial Crisis 10 Years On; Full Employment White Paper , December 2018 , pp. 446 - 458
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2018

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