Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Government–business relations
considered government–business relations in light of globalisation and found,
among other things, that local practices of government–business interaction
persist. 27 This means that local effects of national culture, law and ideologies and
the ‘appropriate’ role of the government in the economy cannot be overlooked
when considering the government–business relationship.
Although individual studies in government–business relations continue, scholarly
interest in the subject has been in general decline, with many Australian
universities abandoning specific government–business relations subjects by 2017.
This decline has coincided with turmoil in Australia’s political leadership, with
prime ministers and governments changing frequently since 2007, preventing the
stable, long-term approaches to government–business relations characteristic of the
Hawke and Keating Labor and Howard Coalition governments. Yet, as will be seen
in the section on emerging issues below, the topic is of increasing importance. We
now turn to the major elements of the government–business relationship: industry
policy and regulation.
Industry policy
The term sector typically refers to the various firms that produce goods or services
of a similar type, such as the mining, agricultural, manufacturing, transport,
tourism and construction sectors. The term industry is usually a subclassification
of a given sector. For example, the transport sector includes taxis, but the taxi
industry is distinct from other transport industries due to its private, point-to-point
transport focus. The taxi industry is also regulated in certain ways by the states and
territories. While these distinctions are important for collecting statistics (and there
are numerous classification standards), for our purposes the term industry will be
used to refer to firms that produce similar products or services and will include the
policy and regulatory institutions of the state that govern a particular industry.
Generally, industries are divided into three types: primary, secondary and
tertiary.Primaryindustriesarefocusedontheproductionofrawmaterialsand
typically include mining, agriculture, forestry and fishing. Secondary industries
are those that use raw materials to produce goods, such as the manufacturing,
engineering and construction industries. Tertiary industries are those that produce
services rather than goods, such as wholesalers, retailers and transport. They can
be further classified as quaternary (knowledge, such as education, media and
telecommunications) and quinary (personal services, such as hospitality, health
care and recreation) industries. These types of industries are important, and the
relative industry mix in Australia has changed significantly over time, with the
manufacturing industries declining significantly since protectionism was largely
replaced by competitive markets in the final decades of the 20th century.
27 McAllister, Davis and Moodie 2004; Parkin and Hardcastle 2010.
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