Having lived through the Hawke PM era myself (1983-1991), and quite liking him and his govt, I can still never understand the way press gallery journalists write adoringly about the Hawke years and how much he ‘reformed’ things etc.
He really
didn’t do that much.
He didn’t
really change wealth distribution, tax the rich more (with one important
exception below); or alter any great power balance in society.
(I can hear
people objecting already to this, so lets work through some of the main arguments
that Hawke changed a lot of things):
Superannuation
Not really
the big shift people thought it was. At the end of the day, its government
saying if you keep your savings and then live off them (with an allowed stream
in retirement) we’ll tax you less. Its
really still wage earners money, but being locked away from them.
its also
turned into (not really Hawke’s fault) a huge gravy train for the rich, and for
rich advisers feeding off the money.
I used to
think there was some great policy purpose to it, but really the only good it
does is stop people blowing their money as they retire, then going on the
pension (or at least thinking about doing this).
It also
creates a huge amount of administrative bloat and waste, notably for people who
get a one off job etc.
Medicare
This is
probably the single biggest ‘Hawke changed things’ point. Yes it was important,
but likely coming anyway, as it has done to virtually every wealthy country
except the USA.
There was a
state system of hospitals etc in Australia, but it still had many gaps.
But again, it was coming anyway, and wasn’t really introduced over the protests of any great pressure group (though the doctors union whinged a bit).
And it should
have covered dental, but didn’t.
The
Accord etc
I never got
this:
- We’ll ask for lower wage rises
- Business will make more money
- ?? living standards will rise
I suppose
there was a benefit here in less chaos from strikes, inflation etc, but it was
way overblown.
Capital
Gains Tax
This was the big one. Introducing a tax on capital gains on assets bought after 1985. Stupidly, this tax was halved by John Howard in 1999. This was the one thing I think Hawke really changed. They had a go at reforming negative gearing (1985) but caved to a property industry whinge campaign in 1987.
Summary
So there we
have it. A cautious government, a cut in wages. A temporary cut in
unemployment, but it all came roaring back in the early 90s recession anyway, (and
went far higher and stayed there).
Not a lot
of taking on vested interests and forcing change.
So why do all these press gallery journalists (Troy Bramston, Paul Kelly etc etc) love to witter on about the Hawke government and how good it was, ‘reform’ etc etc ?:
Because it didn’t change much, and it certainly didn’t affect their proprietors interest (in fact their proprietor was grossly appeased with specific laws passed at his command in 1986).
By writing about Hawke etc they can pretend to themselves that they’re all ‘progressive’. Just like the way they champion unlimited immigration, and kid themselves they’re being all ‘liberal’ when in fact they are cheering on wage cuts and a massive transfer of wealth upwards.
Of course, if anyone really tries to reform things (like getting the miners to actually pay tax on what they dig up), then the press gallery immediately close ranks and start giving unlimited publicity to industry scare campaigns.
But happy
to have my mind changed in the comments! (if there are any of course).