Print this pageEconomic Prosperity
Australia ’s core economic challenge is to build long term, sustainable prosperity that will endure beyond the current global mining boom. The challenge that Australia confronts is to ensure that the dividends of this boom are invested in building the foundations for future prosperity – in particularly, investing in our people, technology and infrastructure.
The Rudd Government is committed to maintaining economic stability through budget surpluses, inflation targeting through the independent Reserve Bank, and a five point plan to keep long term downward pressure on inflation and interest rates. Rising inflation poses a significant economic challenge in the immediate future, and the Government has begun work immediately to meet that challenge through a new era of fiscal restraint and investment in the long term productive capacity of the economy.
The Government’s long term economic priorities are focused on enhancing productivity growth and lifting workforce participation – the keys to long term improvements in Australian living standards. To achieve these goals the Government will:
- Invest in an education revolution, to lift the skills and know-how of the Australian workforce.
- Accelerate the digital transformation of the Australian economy through a high speed national broadband network.
- Reform regulatory arrangements to minimise the compliance burden for individuals and business.
- Take decisive action on the long term challenges of climate change and water shortages, which threaten the viability of many Australian regions and industry sectors.
- Widening Australia’s economic engagement with the key economies of the Asia-Pacific region.
The global economy is changing rapidly. The Australian Government’s response must be to prepare our economy for a new era of global competition, by investing in our people’s skills, building 21st century infrastructure, fostering a culture of innovation and enhancing our competitiveness. Building on the growth of our minerals and energy sectors, Australia has the potential to be a leader in fast-growing global markets such as financial services, education, clean energy technologies, biotechnology and the life sciences, niche areas of advanced manufacturing, highly value-added agricultural markets and other products.
The Government’s vision for Australia’s economic future is a nation with a diverse economy that provides fulfilling, highly skilled and well paid jobs; an economy that competes successfully in global markets; and an economy where barriers to full participation in the economy are removed. In short, our vision is for a strong and stable economy in which all Australians can share in the nation’s growing prosperity.
For further information, visit the Treasury website at www.treasury.gov.au