Is Australia’s new industrial policy a way forward to a competitive, innovative, and sustainable future in which the benefits of new technologies such as renewable energy and artificial intelligence are widely shared throughout society? Or a reversion to past failed attempts to protect local industry, pick winners at taxpayers’ expense, lag in innovation and productivity while further contributing to growing inequality by enrichment of the rentier elites?
A conversation with Dr Michael Keating AC, economist, former head of departments of prime minister and cabinet; finance, and employment and industrial relations, currently visiting fellow at the Australian National university (ANU).
Republished from Mixcloud, May, 2024
Michael Lester is a public policy economist with a career in Commonwealth and State agencies, World Bank and OECD. His interests include innovation, environment, and governance. He presents programs on community radio.
Michael Keating is a former Secretary of the Departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Finance and Employment, and Industrial Relations. He is presently a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.