Beyond the Boom - Launch of the New Lowy Institute Papers published by Penguin Specials

On Thursday, 26 June the Lowy Institute launched Beyond the Boom, a Lowy Institute Paper by Dr John Edwards, published by Penguin Australia. The paper was launched by Lowy Institute board director, Ian MacFarlane AC.

After decades of prosperity Australians are now worried about their jobs, their incomes and their future. The mining boom, said to explain Australia’s past success, is declared to be over. Unemployment has increased, carmakers have folded, and the government is running a huge deficit. In a striking analysis, economist John Edwards challenges the prevailing pessimism. Cutting through the confusion, Edwards shows that the mining boom is far from over – and that it hasn’t been as important for Australian prosperity as widely believed. We have a bright future in the world, and the economy is well configured to get us there. The bright future won’t be in what we dig, though. It will be in what we grow, what we make and, above all, in the services we provide.

John Edwards is an Adjunct Professor with the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University, and a member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia. From 1991 to 1994 he was principal economic adviser to Treasurer and then Prime Minister Paul Keating.