Q&A at John Quigan on 'G20, LNP & Neoliberalism' at the Cloudland Committee
Channel: Workers BushTelegraph
Date: 2013-11-28

About 60 people attended the inaugural meeting of the Cloudland committee. it was addressed by john quigan on 'G20, LNP and neoliberalism'.

john quigan disclaimed any real knowledge of the G20 but spoke at length about the Australian policy elite's failure to understand the current crisis because they are stuck in what he called 'social democratic keynesianism'. john quigan said that this era of economics ended in the late 1970s and this gave rise to neoliberalism that has driven economic policy since the 1990s e.g. in the labour market e.g union bashing. 

john referred to paul keating as being the supporter of the Bond's and the Skase's of this world and as rejecting the traditional capitalists in the Melbourne club. keating's undoing was 'the recession we had to have'. 

john claimed that keating has tried to re-invent himself as a republican warrior and supporter of indigenous issues. i thought this caricature a little harsh given that keating gave the redfern address in the early 1990s and was always a republican albeit a conservative one - unlike 70% of australians keating supported the election of a president by the executive ... but then how would an aboriginal person see this whitefella's wringing of hands in shame in the redfern address? 

quigan said a lot of the economic changes were hatched in secret e.g. competition policy and foisted on an unsuspecting public. trickle down, efficient market hypothesis, stability through the financial markets, 'great moderation' are all myths according to quigan - as is the goose that laid the golden egg - the market. 

as a response to the crisis john quigan advocated populism i.e. 'hanging the bankers from light poles'

curiously prof quigan warned us to be wary of ultra left marxism.

he also said to watch out for free trade agreements like the current 'Trans Pacific Partnerships'.

quigan's advocacy of big public spending was straight out of the keynesian 'new deal' by Roosevelt.The new deal was of course a failure because unemployment became greater in the USA under the new deal than in the earlier part of the great depression. only world war II curtailed the lines to the soup kitchens.

in question time one person said that '60% of the world's poor live in the G20 countries' and wasn't it better to have them represented in the G20 than in the more elitist G7 and G8. quigan agreed. i recorded the full speech and questions and that is available on PShift Soundcloud.