The Dead Roo

Rudd has won the ALP leadership, Gillard won the deputy’s position uncontested. Flutey reckons it’s boring, but this could end up having a more long term signifigance than previously thought.

I must confess that I know little about Rudd’s position on economic policy, but the following quote from an article in the Australian does sound distinctly Keynesian:

“We believe we have a future as a manufacturing country. We have a future with new knowledge-intensive industries,” he said.

“But it’s one where government must be engaged, not just sitting idly by watching from the sidelines.”

Perhaps Rudd can rise to the challenge, and differentiate Labor from the economic policies of the Howard coalition. 

Western Australia riding a minerals boom, Tasmania’s contribution to exports are unprocessed wood chips, fruit, and the stems of opium poppys. Queensland likes it’s sugar, New South Wales and Victoria still rely a hell of a lot on agriculture. The Australian economy is powered by the sale of raw materials, stripping and exporting our natural wealth, an unsustainable and low value adding process.

Is Rudd indicating that his Labor government would seek to reverse this trend? Does Rudd want to reverse twenty years of the governing orthodoxy in this country? Time for this blogger to do a bit more Rudd research.

Update:Rudd’s no fan of Hayek: “The central rationale of John Howard’s culture wars is to effectively mask the real battle of ideas for Australia’s future: a battle between Hayek’s ideology of me, myself and I, versus an idea that says rewarding hard work, achievement and success is entirely compatible with the idea of a decent society.” - Kevin Rudd, quoted in the smh.



But for the whole god thing, I might actually like this guy.

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