In a speech to the Sydney Institute last night, the Treasurer, Peter Costello, has defended the process of globalisation. In so doing, the Liberal Party’s deputy leader has attempted to seize the initiative in the forthcoming election campaign. The speech also represents an articulation of his leadership credentials.
In the speech, Costello argues that the critics of globalisation do not understand what is happening in the world or what has happened in Australian history.
He said: “Globalisation is a description of the fact that countries and their citizens are affected by other people, or governments, or businesses, or decision-makers all around the world. And because communication is faster, and transport cheaper, the connections are more immediate and more intense than ever before. The telephone which first connected suburbs now connects the world and optic fibre transmits data, money, email, knowledge from business to business, home to business, home to home across the world.
“As I have previously argued globalisation is not a value, it is a process. Globalisation describes what is happening. And ranting against globalisation is like ranting against the telephone. You can use the telephone for good or for ill. So too the wider process (of which the telephone is part) can be a force for good or ill.