The Andrews government and the rise of Rentier capitalism in Victoria

Bibliographic Data

ID6234088
AuthorsDavid Hayward (0000-0002-1114-5817, RMIT University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume58
Issue4
Pages424-441
Publication date2023-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1036-1146 • E-ISSN: 1363-030X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10361146.2023.2199915
OpenAlexW4367309158
LanguageEN
References cited9

On 26 November 2022 the Andrews Labor Government was re-elected for a third term in the State of Victoria. The starting point for this paper is its decision during the pandemic to seemingly break with neoliberal political orthodoxy, by boldly and deliberately leveraging the state’s balance sheet to avoid recession, using debt-funded record levels of spending, particularly on infrastructure, as a means of doing so. The paper argues that in decisively embracing a neo-Keynesian budget strategy, the Andrews government did not actually break with the recent neoliberal past. It turbo charged it, with the dramatical increase in debt-funded spending being used to finance a massive expansion of an intricate network of private monopoly contractors operating everything from ports, tollways and public transport, to policy advice, jails and road maintenance. The paper concludes that over the last four decades of policy reform, Victoria has been transformed into a ‘Rentier State

Capitalism · Debt · Economics · Government (linguistics · Government Debt · Keynesian economics · Market economy · Monopoly · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Recession · State (computer science · Employment and Welfare Studies · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Public Administration · Finance

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