Unions love Albanese's 'future made in Australia' plan. Economists are horrified.
Australia's version of the Inflation Reduction Act has been praised by unions. But economists have lambasted the proposal, saying the mistakes of the past are being repeated.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s answer to Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has been lauded by union groups who hope it will deliver secure jobs for workers, but pilloried by mainstream economists who fear the proposal is primarily political and counter-productive.
The government's Future Made in Australia Act will be introduced later this year and will combine a number of existing measures with new spending that will be fulsomely unveiled in next month’s Budget.
But even without the benefit of the finer details, the approach has proven disconcerting for economists including George Washington University assistant professor of economics Steven Hamilton, who said the new rhetoric on industry policy was “frankly horrifying”.
“It’s as though the government has simply decided to ignore decades of very expensive, very hard-learnt lessons by both political parties that this kind of thing is a very bad idea,” Hamilton told Capital Brief.
