The Australian Treasury Secretary Ken Henry gave his final speech on March 4 in which he said that the main obstacle to economic reforms was complacency. He added that the hardest part of his job had been to encourage the nation to make tough decisions.
The once in a hundred years mining boom that kept Australia unaffected on the whole by the global financial crisis actually brought in the complacency. Dr Henry said that there were no right answers with the mining boom causing huge changes in the economy.
However he was clear about some elements such as higher savings, lifting productivity and increasing the workforce were good ideas. There was a complacency after the good fortune of the mining boom and this was dangerous. He said that policies on population that addressed the need of workforces supply in an environmentally sustainable manner was essential.
The man who delivered his last public address in the authority of a bureaucrat at the University of Tasmania was the person who helped design the GST for John Howard and also helped Kevin Rudd with the mining tax. However he was not too happy with the political situation today. He said that there was not the same sense of urgency today amongst our politicians that there was in the 1980's.