Restoring Prosperity

Professor Ross Garnaut AC delivered six webinars in this RESET series. More information on the series is available here.

On Wednesday 3 June, Professor Garnaut delivered webinar #3, Restoring Prosperity.

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Lecture three outlined the challenge of restoring high levels of employment and incomes in an economy which has experienced a collapse of productivity in a post-pandemic economy, and has to deal with unprecedented levels of public deficits and debt.

Professor Garnaut explored the monetary stance adopted by the RBA in March 2020 and the contribution that this stance can make to restoring full employment and income growth and managing debt—including through meeting the RBA’s responsibilities on full employment and inflation within the target range of 2-3 percent. While fiscal policy seems unsustainably expansionary, it will need to remain expansionary until full employment has been reached. This lecture also explored how the relationship between deficits, public debt and economic activity can be improved by changes in taxation and income support policy improving economic efficiency and equity at the same time.