ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors paint a picture of an Australian state which is progressing enthusiastically down the globalization path. Its policies have been fashioned by neo-liberalist thinking, and have led to the cutting of tariffs, the removal of support from industry, and to deregulation of financial markets. For most Australian neo-liberal economists, the move to a more globalized world in which freer trade prevails is viewed as essential if Australian agriculture is to prosper. While many Australian regions are desirable in terms of natural resources, labour costs are still very much higher than in the developing economies to Australia’s north. One way to understand the nature of change in agricultural policy is to ‘graph’ the various dimensions relating to state regulation and to social welfare. ‘Agri-food restructuring’ or ‘rural restructuring’ are used by sociologists in an effort to grasp what forces are at work in altering the trajectory of rural areas of the developed capitalist world.
