Hawke would ask of his anti-reform critics: "what are they in favour of -- economic irrationalism?" Upon entering parliament in 1998, I was counselled by friends that my proposal to describe myself as an economic rationalist in my first speech amounted to an overly long political suicide note. By economic rationalism I meant advocacy of policies to increase national income that is then available to support the needy and create opportunity for all. Now, 12 years later, as Australia's Trade Minister, I remain one of those horrible economic rationalists; one who is hard headed and soft hearted. At its essence, Labor's guiding philosophy of economic reform has been a commitment to markets and competition -- a commitment reaffirmed by Julia Gillard as Prime Minister. Of course there can be a role for government intervention to correct for market failure, including anti-competitive behaviour and inadequate private incentives for research and development. But the presumption must be that competition is good, more competition is better and markets are better than governments in allocating scarce resources among competing commercial uses. It is this philosophy that guided the Hawke and Keating governments in opening up Australia to competition, refashioning it from an economy supplying a small, domestic market protected by high tariff walls to an open, competitive economy supplying global markets. Competitive forces were applied to the exchange rate, financial markets, product markets and government business enterprises. Trade policy and microeconomic reform were integral components of the overall economic reform program, intertwined and bound