Bridging the divide and reacquainting our policy makers with their public is not just a matter of solving a temporary political impasse. It is more than a problem to patch over. How Australia goes about bridging the divide between the electorate and the policy circles will be pivotal in shaping its ongoing culture and values. The economic rationalist reform period was a revolution that changed more than our economy. As this period of change comes to a close, our response to it will set the foundations of the Australia of the 21st century.

Things to be put to one side

The fabric of a national culture is woven together by thousands of different threads. How we organise our economy is an important, even foundational, thread, but it is not the only thread that runs through Australian culture. Through the economic rationalist years there has been a bundle of grand-scale cultural changes that aren't closely related to economic policy and aren't the focus of this book. These have included the rise of feminism, multiculturalism, Aboriginal reconciliation, environmentalism and gay rights. These movements have all impacted, in different ways, on our ideas about what it is to be an Australian. But while recognising their importance I will leave those changes to be discussed by others. My purpose is to draw out the largely under-recognised thread of the impact of economic changes on our culture.