Neoliberalism is dead. So why haven’t Australia’s leaders got the message? | John Quiggin

Until centre-left parties can escape the mental prison built by decades of soft neoliberalism, it is what we are likely to get

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According to the internet, neoliberalism is dead, or at least gravely ill. A quick Google search reveals multiple eulogies for the political and economic doctrine. But what was (or is) neoliberalism and why is it no longer with us? More importantly, why haven't Australia's leaders got the message?

Like any term with negative connotations, neoliberalism" is widely applied, and misapplied, and can refer to any aspect of modern capitalism that the speaker wants to criticise, from architecture to Zumba. Even Donald Trump, who has repudiated the core doctrines of neoliberalism in favour of an extreme version of crony capitalism, has been described as embodying the ultimate triumph of neoliberalism".

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John Quiggin is a professor at the University of Queensland's school of economics