Giblin's Platoon: The trials and triumph of the economist in Australian public life

Abstract

who, in 1920s Tasmania, formed a personal and intellectual bond that was to prove a pivot of economic thought, policy-making and institution-building in mid-century Australia. The book seeks to supply in words the group photograph that, sadly, seems not to exist. In our book, as in the hypothetical wished-for photograph, L. F. Giblin stands firmly at the centre, glaring at the observer, the focus of our attention, implicitly commanding the following of the others. Copland stands loyally, close by his right hand; Brigden is at his left, a bit further away, as if seeking a little space; and Wilson stands between Brigden and Giblin, directly contemplating the onlooker with a cool, sceptical expression. Our photograph does not seek to glamorise or sentimentalise: it allows a stark light to fall on any unattractive surface. But it does allow the subjects to arrange themselves, so that they reveal what they chose, even if they did not realise they were revealing it. The photograph has an arresting background; one that explains why it has been taken at all. For the story told here is larger than that of the four lives. It is the story of the advent of the economist in Australian public life. A more extensive telling of this tale would involve others, including E. O. G. Shann, L. G. Melville and H. C. Coombs. But these persons either leave early, or join late. It is our four who lead the advance, endure reversals, and finally consolidate the position.

The Australian Labour Market: The More Things Change …

“…In aftermath of the September 2014 Financial Stability Review, both the Australian Bankers' Association and Property Council of Australia warned against further macro‐prudential controls, citing lack of current problems with lending profile and possible perverse outcomes such as reducing supply. It reminded me of the comment in Coleman, Cornish and Hagger's book (, p. 231) on Giblin's The Growth of a Central Bank that throughout the book the private banks ‘… combined noisy professions of conventional morality with a steady‐eyed devotion to their own advantage’. ]…”

Beyond Brigden: Australia's Inter‐War Manufacturing Tariffs, Real Wages and Economic Size*

“…The utility of the worker (the 'standard of living') must rise as long as the worker consumes some non-zero quantity of food. 5,6 Brigden's thesis might be seen as underlain by an extreme HOS model where no capital at all operates in manufacturing (Coleman, 2006). Alternatively, the constancy of marginal returns to labour in manufacturing might be thought of as a consequence of a supply (from abroad) of physical capital that is perfectly elastic at some externally determined rate of return.…”

“…The Scullin government adopted protectionism as its principal economic policy instrument, a platform that had been endorsed, if only weakly, by the Brigden Report. By 1931-1932, Australia's average tariff had increased further, from 1929's 20 per cent to 30 per cent (Dollery & Whitten, 1998).…”

“…The Report is 'exasperatingly' 'loose and incomplete'(Cain, 1973).5 This proposition is presented more formally in an appendix toColeman et al . (2006).6 Anderson and Garnaut (1987, p. 30) also suggest that the implicit taxation of land was an attractive feature of the tariff in the Brigden period, because land-owners were seen as comparatively wealthy.…”

The Social Sciences in Australia: an Unrequited Instrumentalism

“…The economists were the first to win recognition of their expertise, largely though policy advice to federal and state governments during the inter-war Depression (Coleman et al, 2006). Education secured substantial support following the formation in 1930 of the Australian Council for Educational Research with funding from the Carnegie Corporation and government, and this allowed the establishment of psychological laboratories at Melbourne and Sydney (Connell, 1980).…”