ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the challenges that Australian co-operatives faced in the wake of the end of the post-war boom. There rise of Neo-liberalism questioned the mutuality on which co-operatives were based with a policy priority being given to investor-owned businesses. There were amalgamations and demutualisations of financial and agricultural co-operatives. The collapse of the traditional consumer co-operative movement continued. Despite these setbacks, there was increased interest in worker co-operatives during the 1980s, the beginnings of a food co-operative movement and a growth of co-operative community settlements. There was a significant upsurge of housing co-operatives and new initiatives such as arts, platform and social co-operatives. Despite these developments, the co-operative movement remained fractured and weak at a national level, which inhibited its ability to counter Neo-liberalism and survive in an increasingly competitive and open Australian economy.
