‘Regulatory Responsibility’: embedded neoliberalism and its contradictions

Abstract

The proposed Regulatory Responsibility Bill is part of the unfinished business of regime change (Wade, 2008) from Keynesian welfarism to neoliberalism between 1984 and 1994. The imposition of far-reaching pro-market disciplines on domestic regulation is intended to complement the codification of monetarism and fiscal austerity through the Reserve Bank Act 1989 and Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994 (since absorbed into the Public Finance Act). Although these disciplines are inscribed in ordinary legislation they are attributed a ‘constitutional’ standing that their proponents hope will embed them in perpetuity.