The era of serious economic reform in Australia has been dead for 25 years. But this week, a pulse was detected

May 16, 2026 — 3:00am

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A quarter-century after Australia’s era of serious reform had been declared dead, a pulse has been detected. The Labor government and the Liberal opposition proposed major reforms this week. Suddenly, a battle of ideas is under way.

This has raised the tantalising prospect that Australia is not necessarily fated to continue its fall in living standards, a fall perhaps twinned in a downward double helix with populist recrimination. National renewal may be possible.

In the same week, we noted the 40th anniversary of Paul Keating’s “banana republic” alarm. That dismal fate was averted by nearly 20 years of difficult, unpopular reform by Labor and Liberal governments. It was a reminder that national revival is in our hands.

“We are giving hope to younger generations,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said this week, speaking of the government’s plan to curb the privileges that the tax system gives investors over first-home buyers. “That’s what this budget is all about.”

But, with both government and opposition pitching serious proposals for change, it’s bigger than that. Our political system is actually offering hope to Australia.

Can Pauline Hanson’s rampaging campaign of populist anger take some of the credit for the new activism of the major parties? Yes. Labor has been nudged into action partly by an unspoken frisson of fear.

The Liberals are running in sheer terror. To the point where every one of Angus Taylor’s big announcements this week came straight out of One Nation’s playbook. As Barnaby Joyce has teased: “The Liberals acknowledge One Nation policies past, present and emerging.” But not every one of One Nation’s ideas is bad.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reminded the House this week of something that the Liberals’ Andrew Hastie said recently: “I just think we need to overhaul the whole system. We either fix the system or it’s torn down by people like Pauline Hanson.”

The political sound and fury in the months ahead sometimes will not seem terribly hopeful. But it is the sound of democracy at work.

Serious reform in Australia ended with the Howard-Costello tax reforms that were headlined by the introduction of the GST in 2000. Every major reform attempted since has failed, sometimes destroying the government that attempted........

© WA Today