In the late 1970s attacks on the welfare state and 'big government' gathered momentum. Economic and social problems, inflation and unemployment were blamed on the growth of the interventionist state. The proposed solution was to cut back the public sector and to reinvigorate the private sector, Conservative ideologists advocated a return to laissez-faire liberalism which Keynes had declared dead in 1926. They claimed that the state must abandon its misguided pursuit of social justice and return to a more modest role. Social welfare would be resumed by the 'family' - depending among other things on the unpaid work of women.
Australia and the New Right is the first book to examine the impact on Australian politics of the general shift to the right in the English-speaking democracies. The contributors analyse the philosophy, the economic doctrines, the politics and the policy outcomes of this shift in Australia. They conclude that the policies and ideology of the new right serve to increase and to legitimise social and economic inequalities and 'public squalor'. Such policies stress the virtues of selfishness and private provision; they threaten the moral consensus of the community