Opinion

The govt buying Australian isn't all it's made out to be

Adam Triggs
Updated April 6 2022 - 1:34pm, first published November 23 2021 - 5:30am
To say international trade is a bad idea is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Picture: Shutterstock
To say international trade is a bad idea is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Picture: Shutterstock

It's not until you start teaching economics that something becomes very clear: economics is not intuitive. On no issue is this more apparent than when we consider whether "buy Australian" is a good policy. Surveys consistently show that most Australians love the idea. Of course, Australia's $400 billion of imports each year shows they don't actually do it, but they nevertheless think it would be great if other people did it.

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Adam Triggs

Adam Triggs

Columnist

Adam Triggs is a partner at the economics advisory firm, Mandala, a visiting fellow at the ANU Crawford School and a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution.

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