The first time I met Malcolm Turnbull, Australia¡¯s new leader, all he could talk about was Japan. It was June 2002 and the Goldman Sachs banker-turned-politician couldn¡¯t comprehend how a smart, democratic government could simply stand by as an enervating malaise strangled the economy.
When I asked him whether something similar could happen in Australia, Turnbull stared out his Sydney office window. ¡°There are real risks for Australia in globalization and we could be a loser in the future just as we have been a winner to date,¡± he said.
Those risks are more than obvious now. Unlike Japan, Australia isn¡¯t suffering from deflation and demographic blight. But its leaders, too, are guilty of not moving fast enough to adjust to a changing economic reality. Over the last two years, neither then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott nor Treasurer Joe Hockey implemented the structural reforms needed to increase incomes and boost competitiveness.
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