Tanya Plibersek For growth to be good it also has to be sustainable and fair. Our government is trying to ensure the G20 doesn’t talk about sustainability or fairness. THE TWO WORDS ABBOTT DOESN’T WANT TO HEAR AT G20 Are the G20 a bunch of softies? This weekend world leaders and finance ministers will be at the G20 meeting in Brisbane. They are talking about how to increase economic growth. Growth is good because it brings with it more and better paid jobs. At least, that’s the theory. For growth to be good it also has to be sustainable and fair. Our government is trying to ensure the G20 doesn’t talk about sustainability or fairness. But the G20 cannot avoid talking about climate change. China and the United States have just announced that they will sign up to carbon pollution cuts that are deeper and faster than anyone imagined. This will have a massive effect on the world economy. Australia has to be part of the green jobs opportunities that go with this fundamental change, despite the Abbott government removing climate change from the agenda of the G20. Another important omission from the G20 agenda is the descriptor “inclusive” for growth. Inclusive growth means growth that benefits all of a nation’s citizens, not just an elite few. It means a smaller gap between the wealthiest and the poorest people in a country, and smaller gaps between rich nations and poor ones. Inclusive growth is good for everyone. Economic bodies like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the OECD have all discovered that nations with smaller gaps between the rich and poor have higher and longer periods of growth than more unequal countries. Those nations get the most from their people because they invest in education, health and productive infrastructure, and those investments pay off as higher growth in the economy. Those economic institutions and individuals like economist Joseph Stiglitz, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, and Christine Legarde of the IMF are not big softies. They are hard-headed economists who have done the numbers: fairer growth is stronger and longer growth too. It benefits us all. Read More: thehoopla.au/lets-talk-sustainable-growth/
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 01:48:27 +0000
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