Implementing and Maintaining Neoliberal Agriculture in Australia - Part II: Strategies for Securing Neoliberalism

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##

Published Jun 4, 2005
Bill Pritchard

Abstract

Australia is the world’s leading advocate for neoliberal agriculture, and dominant opinion in the Australian Government interprets the adoption of neoliberalism as a triumph of rational ‘national interest’ considerations in policy. This is the second of a two-part critical review of how these policy frameworks have been implemented and maintained (the first part of the review is published in the previous issue of IJSAF - Vol. 13(1), July 2005). In this article, attention is focused on the legitimising discourses used to justify and defend these policies. It concludes that a culture of political correctness has emerged in Australian agricultural policy discourse, in which the benefits from neoliberal outcomes are systemically exaggerated, but other implications are silenced. The insights presented here have international significance, given the leadership role being played by the Australian Government in advancing a new, market-oriented model for the political relationship between food, agriculture and society.

How to Cite

Pritchard, B. . (2005) “Implementing and Maintaining Neoliberal Agriculture in Australia - Part II: Strategies for Securing Neoliberalism ”, The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. Paris, France, 13(2), pp. 1–14. doi: 10.48416/ijsaf.v13i2.306.
Abstract 465 | PDF Downloads 314

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##

References
Alston, Margaret. 2004. “Who is Down on the Farm? Social Aspects of Australian Agriculture in the 21st Century.” Agriculture and Human Values 21:37–46.
Andrews, Neil, Benjamin Buetre, Alistair Davidson, David McDonald, Frank Jotzo and Brian S. Fisher. 2003. “Agricultural Trade Reform: Benefits for Australian Broadacre Agriculture.” Australian Commodities 10(2): 249–59.
Argent, Neil. 1999. “Inside the Black Box: Dimensions of Gender, Generation and Scale in the Australian Rural Restructuring Process. Journal of Rural Studies 15(1):1–15.
Capling, Ann. 2001. Australia and the Global Trade System: From Havana to Seattle. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 2001b Precaution, scientific uncertainty and the agreement on the application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement). Quarantine and Market Access Conference, Canberra 17 October 2001. Available: http://203.6.171.3/trade/negotiations/disputes/wto_disputes_issues_sps.html
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 1999. Global Trade Reform: Maintaining Momentum. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 2001a. Australia’s Trade: Influences into the New Millennium. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Garnaut, John and H. Lim-Applegate. 1998. “People in Farming.” ABARE Research Report 98(6).
Garnaut, John. 2004. “Sugar Handout Causes Split in Farming Alliance.” The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 April: 4.
Gleeson, Trish, Daniel McDonald, Stephen Hooper and Peter Martin. 2003. “Australian Beef Industry.” ABARE Research Report 03(3).
Gordon, John. 2004. “$444m Sweetener for Canegrowers.” The Age, 30 April: 4.
Gray, Ian and Geoffrey Lawrence. 2001. A Future for Regional Australia: Escaping Global Misfortune. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hooper, Stephen, Peter Martin, Graham Love and Brian S. Fisher. 2002. “Farm Size and Productivity: Where Are the Trends Taking Us?” Australian Commodities 9(3): 495–500.
House of Representatives (2003) Parliamentary Debates-Official Hansard, 10 February: 11223–11410.
Jones, Evan. 1994. “Bureaucratic Politics and Economic Policy: The Evolution of Trade Policy in the 1970s & 1980s.” Working Papers in Economics (Department of Economics: University of Sydney) 212.
Koc, Mustafa. 1994. “Globalisation as a Discourse”. In From Columbus to Conagra: The Globalisation of Agriculture and Food, edited by Alessandro Bonanno, Lawrence Busch, William Friedland, Lourdes Gouveia and Enzo Mingione. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press: 265–80.
Larner, Wendy and Richard Le Heron. 2002. “The Spaces and Subjects of a Globalising Economy: A Situated Exploration of Method.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 20: 753–774.
Larner, Wendy. 2003. “Neoliberalism?.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 21: 509–512.
Lawrence, Geoffrey and Ian Gray. 2000. “The Myths of Modern Agriculture: Australian Rural Production in the 21st Century.” In Land of Discontent, edited by Bill Pritchard and Phil McManus. Kensington: UNSW Press: 33-51.
Ludlow, Martin with AAP. 2004. “Sugar in Line with Rules: Economist.” Australian Financial Review, 3 May: 7.
Morgan, Bronwen. 2003. Social Citizenship in the Shadow of Competition: The Bureaucratic Politics of Regulatory Justification. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Peck, Jamie and Adam Tickell. 2002. “Neoliberalizing space.” Antipode 34 (3): 380–404.
Perrett, Janine. 2001. “How We Put Reform on the Table.” Sydney Morning Herald 1 September: 50.
Podbury, Troy. 2000. “US and EU Agricultural Support: Who Does it Benefit.” ABARE Current Issues 2000 (2).
Pritchard, Bill and David Burch. 2004. Agri-food Globalisation in Perspective: International Restructuring in the Processing Tomato Industry. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Pritchard, Bill. 1999. “Australia as the ‘Supermarket to Asia?’ Governance, Territory and Political Economy in the Australian Agri-food System.” Rural Sociology 64(2): 284-301.
Pritchard, Bill. 2000. “Negotiating the Two-edged Sword of Agricultural Trade Liberalisation: Trade Policy and its Protectionist Discontents.” In Land of Discontent, edited by Bill Pritchard and Phil McManus. Kensington: UNSW Press: 90–104.
Pritchard, Bill. 2005a. “Implementing and Maintaining Neoliberal Agriculture in Australia. Part I: Constructing Neoliberalism as a Vision for Agricultural Policy.” International Journal of the Sociology of Agriculture and Food.
Pritchard, Bill. 2005b. “The World Steer Revisited: Australian Cattle Production and the Pacific Basin Beef Complex.” In Cross-continental Food Chains, edited by Niels Fold and Bill Pritchard. London: Routledge.
Reardon, Thomas and Jacques Berdegue. 2002. “The Rapid Rise of Supermarkets in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities for Development.” Development Policy Review 20(4):371–388.
Robertson, Graham. 1997. “Managing the Environment for Profit.” Outlook 97, Proceedings of the National Agricultural and Resources Outlook Conference:75–97.
Sharma, Devinder. 2004. “Outside View: Faulty Frame, Savage Reality.” Focus on Trade 103: 6–8.
Sheales, Terry and Daniel McDonald. 2003. “Trade Reform and Issues for Australian Beef.” ABARE Conference Paper 03.14
Spriggs, John. 1990. “Transparency versus Protectionism: The Australian Way.” Centre for International Economic Studies University of Adelaide Seminar Paper 90-03.
Stoekel, Andrew and Hugh Corbet editors. 1999. Reason versus Emotion – Requirements for a Successful WTO Round. Canberra: Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.
Stoekel, Andrew. 2004. Termites in the Basement: To Free Up Trade, Fix the WTO’s Foundations. Canberra: Centre for International Economics for the Rural Industries Research and Development Commission.
Thurow, Lester. 1996. The Future of Capitalism. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Whalley, John. 2000. “What can the Developing Countries infer from the Uruguay Round Models for Future Negotiations.” UNCTAD Policy Issues in International Trade and Commodities Series 4.
Section
Articles