ABSTRACT
Australian economists have scrutinised public policy using a market failure/government failure approach to policy evaluation, with considerable success in terms of creating insight into the nature of the measures and their impact on economic efficiency. The nature of government policy has been the subject of considerable reform, with many long-standing policies being brought into question and finally being abolished. There is some indication that the programme of microeconomic reform in Australia provided some successes, evidenced by the long period of growth which began in 1991 and survived the twin external shocks of the Asian Economic Crisis of 1998 and the Global Financial Crisis ten years later. An additional concern has been that the increasingly internationalized nature of the Australian economy is leading to greater inequalities in Australian society, which along with an ageing population is putting additional strain on Australia's welfare and health sectors.
