Australia's economic policies
Why is it important to increase efficiency levels in the Australian economy? Before we discuss this it is important to define exactly what we mean when we say efficiency. Do we mean technical efficiency and attempt to produce our output at the minimum price? Perhaps we mean to increase allocative efficiency and distribute resources throughout the economy better in accordance with the demands of consumers. We may even speak of dynamic efficiency and thus introduce new technology and new techniques in order to keep pace with changes in consumer demand. However we cannot simply mean to increase one of these if we are to achieve maximum efficiency throughout our economy they all must be increased in order to maintain a balanced and efficient economy and to promote economic growth. There are many policies to aid this that will be looked at during the course of this essay including privatization, corporatisation, deregulation and a host of others.Privatization, a political hot potato, is at the same time both an economically sound but politically dangerous idea. Privatization, simply put, is the transfer of the ownership of public assets to the private sector achieved generall
Our government began in it's colonial days aiming to protect the fledgling Australian industries, we had government banks and later telecommunications and for many years only a single airline which later changed to allow a single competitor. All this however is effectively useless if there is no monitoring and enforcement agency and such and agency was formulated in 1995 by a merger in the Trade Practices Commission and the Price Surveillance Authority. Flexibility within the labour market was further increased in 1996 with the introduction of the Workplace Relations Act. Why do we privatize though? Well primarily in order to expose the Industry to market forces in order to force it to be more efficient, increase it's growth and to better respond to the demands of the consumer. (Lewis et al, 1998) Privatizing industries requires deregulation in and of itself to ensure the desired competition. Accountability to shareholders also plays a large role in encouraging efficiency in a company as high returns are expected if they wish to keep current investors and attract others. Deregulation has had large impact on many industries, most noticeably however in the telecommunications industry and the domestic air travel industry. (Lewis et al, 1998)All this is well and good for me to say but what are the consequences for consumers and the Australian economy or this competitiveness, efficiency and regulation? Firstly, and I think perhaps most importantly, is the creation and maintenance of lower prices. y by the sale of shares in said enterprise, i. Competition is the main market force that we wish to expose the industry to as a firm in an industry where it has competitors must be as efficient as possible so as to keep it's prices costs low and it's product quality high. More recently in 2000 the New Tax System was introduce and for the first time Australia has a goods and services tax and the Wholesale Sales Tax has now been abolished. Privatization, while practiced throughout the world, did not begin on any truly significant scale until about 1990 and since then has grown exponentially. (Lewis et al, 1998) This authority is the arbiter and enforcer of the Trade Practices Act (1974), which governs fair trading practices and anti-competitive behavior.
Common topics in this essay:
Samuel Raven,
Practices Act,
Sales Tax,
Slowman Norris,
Economically Australia,
Hilmer Report,
Authority Lewis,
Tax System,
Relations Act,
al 1998,
allocative efficiency,
et al,
australian economy,
et al 1998,
lewis et,
lewis et al,
Trade Practices,
output minimum price,
market share,
minimum price,
throughout economy,
australian industries,
maintain market share,
mean increase,
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Acceptance Essays
