ABSTRACT
Although strongly influenced by its economic and military reliance on Britain and the USA, Australia's economic development during the twentieth century was also characterised by national development strategies that used tariffs and other forms of industry policy to develop key industries. These policies assisted Australia's shift from a peripheral supplier of raw materials in the nineteenth century to a more mature industrialised semi-peripheral economy by the mid-twentieth century. The adoption of neoliberal policies from the 1980s countered this trend, integrating Australia more closely into the global economy, through tariff reductions, privatisation of public infrastructure and a reluctance to use industry policy. However, special tariff arrangements for the textile, clothing and footwear industries, and the vehicle industry, state government procurement policies and some obligations on investors to use local suppliers were retained. Australia also had public income support, public health and education systems and a national public system of access to affordable medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). These policies have also been modified since the 1980s by neoliberal trends of user pays and privatisation, but strong public support for them prevented them from being completely dismantled.
