The much-debated term “neoliberalism” again entered the political debate last week, with Greens leader Adam Bandt using a National Press Club speech to decry neoliberalism in the Labor Party.
Bandt claimed that since the Keating and Hawke governments, Labor has adopted neoliberalism by “privatising public services, cutting taxes for the wealthy and adopting more austerity”. Keating hit back, calling Bandt “a bounder and distorter of political truth”, angrily rejecting suggestions that Medicare and compulsory superannuation could be related to “conservative neoliberalism”.
