What to make of Future Made in Australia ? New directions in industry policy

Abstract All governments ‘do’ industry policy, in the sense that they engage with business activity within their borders in order to create jobs, to further trade, or simply to keep up with technologies considered necessary for future growth. As a subject of scholarly and policy-related inquiry, however, industry policy was, for much of the period from the 1990s onward, overshadowed by what was widely perceived to be the triumphant march of freer trade and globalisation. Now that, for political, economic, and also environmental reasons, globalisation is viewed more critically, interest in industry policy has returned. But the subject remains controversial, not least because national conditions vary so markedly that mainstream economists remain hesitant to endorse more than minimal interventions. Nowhere have these misgivings been more marked than in Australia, which prides itself on its free trade credentials. But the world is changing unpredictably, and for Australia, as for many other trading nations, a new approach is needed to harness, intelligently, the power of the state in these circumstances.