By Denis Hay
Description
Explore capitalism and its colonial roots, neoliberalism’s rise, and how Australians can build a fairer, more dignified future for all.
Introduction: A Nation Once Built on Shared Prosperity
Picture this: It’s 1975. University is free. Hospitals are fully public and well-staffed. Roads, energy, and banking are government-owned and run in the public interest. Australian life is decent, affordable, and stable. But fast-forward to 2025 – you’re paying tolls on public roads, your child has HECS debt, rents are through the roof, and billionaires pay less tax than teachers. What happened?
We live under a system that most people can’t define, yet it governs every aspect of our lives. That system is capitalism. Not just trade, but a ruthless economic engine that feeds off colonial extraction, ecological destruction, and social exploitation. And its modern weapon? Neoliberalism.
This article explores the origin and spread of the neoliberal system, how neoliberalism was designed to suppress democracy, and how Australians can reclaim our nation’s future through economic justice and our sovereign currency.
The Problem: Capitalism Was Built on Looting, Not Liberty
Capitalism vs. Commerce: Clearing the Confusion
Capitalism isn’t simply buying, selling, or running a business. Those are acts of commerce. What makes capitalism unique is the systematic commodification of three things: land, labour, and money. That process began around 1450, on the uninhabited island of Madeira, where the Portuguese launched the world’s first sugar plantation economy.
Location: Madeira, 15th century.
Action: Forests were razed. Land was privatised. People from the Canary Islands and West Africa were enslaved.
Thoughts: “There’s no one to stop us,” the colonisers said. “No commoners, no rules, no limits.”
This began a predatory economy: extract, exploit, exhaust – then move on. Boom. Bust. Quit. This model replicated across the Caribbean, South America, and eventually the globe. It was fast, violent, and immensely profitable, but burned through everything in its path.
Neoliberalism – The Modern Armour of Capitalism
The Rise of Neoliberalism: A War on Democracy
After World War II, corporate rule faced a new threat: democracy. People wanted fair wages, social services, and protection from exploitation. In response, a new ideology appeared: neoliberalism. This wasn’t just an economic idea – it was a political weapon.
In 1947, thinkers like Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises formed the Mont Pelerin Society, funded by the super-rich. The society aimed to create a global network of “think tanks,” academics, journalists, and politicians to promote neoliberal ideas. Its goal was to dismantle the welfare state and privatise everything.
Quote: “The state is the oppressor of freedom.” – Friedrich Hayek
Australia Falls into Line
Australia was not immune. From the 1980s, both Labor and Liberal parties embraced neoliberalism:
• HECS replaced free education in 1989.
• Telstra, Qantas, and Commonwealth Bank were privatised.
• Medicare was underfunded, while private health insurance received subsidies.
• Public housing was gutted, replaced by support for private developers.
Emotion: Australians were told this was efficient and necessary. But wealth was siphoned upward behind closed doors, while services were cut downward.
Reclaiming Australia Through Economic Justice
Dollar Sovereignty: Australia’s Hidden Power
Australia is a currency-issuing nation, meaning our federal government can never run out of money – it creates it. Unlike a household, it doesn’t need to “save up” or balance a budget. It can invest in anything we need: schools, hospitals, homes, jobs.
Thought: “Why are we told there’s not enough money for the homeless, but always enough for corporate subsidies and weapons deals?”
Real-world examples:
• Japan runs massive deficits and has full employment.
• Finland provides world-class education and social care.
We can do the same. The obstacle is not money – it’s political will.
Rebuilding Public Goods
To undo neoliberal damage, we must:
• Restore free public education at all levels.
• Fully fund Medicare and aged care.
• Build public housing on a national scale.
• End subsidies to fossil fuel giants.
• Introduce a Job Guarantee to ensure meaningful employment.
Strengthening Democracy
A just economy must be democratic. This means:
• Breaking up corporate media monopolies.
• Banning political donations from corporations.
• Empowering local government and community-led initiatives.
Capitalism Burned the House Down. Neoliberalism Barred the Exit
Predatory economies didn’t evolve naturally – they were systems imposed through force and supported by propaganda. Neoliberalism is its 20th-century mask, used to strip public wealth and dismantle democratic protections. But Australia can change course.
With our dollar sovereignty, we can fully fund the services we all need, prioritise people over profit, and ensure everyone lives with dignity.
Have Your Say
Have you or someone you know struggled under Australia’s neoliberal policies? Share your story in the comments below.
Q&A: Common Concerns
Q1: Isn’t capitalism just human nature?
A: No. Trade is natural; the neoliberal system is based on extraction and exploitation, enforced through law and violence.
Q2: Won’t public investment cause inflation?
A: Only if spending exceeds real resources. Australia has unused capacity – we can invest without causing inflation.
Q3: What can I do to fight neoliberalism?
A: Vote strategically. Support independents. Challenge mainstream narratives. Join community campaigns. Speak out.
Call to Action
Do you see opportunities for community-driven change in Australia’s dollar sovereignty?
If you found this article insightful, explore more on political reform and Australia’s monetary sovereignty at Social Justice Australia.
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References
Money may make the world go round, but what is it exactly?
If this neoliberal system is ‘natural,’ why was so much force used to build it?
Neoliberalism as Creative Destruction.
This article was originally published on Social Justice Australia
Also by Denis Hay: How Judaism vs Zionism Became a Global Identity Conflict
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Denis, you need to go and have a full and frank discussion with Albo and his closest advisors.I wish you the best of luck.
Thank-you, Denis Hay, the summation of Australia’s woes can be even more concise in
the use of just 2 words. American Imperialism.
One can add 3 more words to give force to those 2 words by 3 more essential words, soft belly politicians.
The people of Australia have not let us down. That blame lays squarely upon our post WW2 exit.
Think of people like John W Howard, he with his fawning ways, he had let Australia down, he had endorsed the usurpation of our nation.
One of the greatest shibboleths that had doomed Australia post WW2, was that the USA was our friend, that is not so, as they gloat and predate upon our nation’s resources.
E.G. Currently, the USA controls or has acquired 84% of Australia’s Gold mining entities. The next will be our rare earth minerals. The USA must no longer be tolerated.
Shibboleths thus constitute markers of identity, and thereby instantly also criteria for exclusion: they are a way to detect those who lack the necessary knowledge to be part of an inside group.
In West Africa, the African State of Burkina Faso, President Ibrahim Traore, had banished the French Imperialists from their nation State.
They are now persona non-gratis. Also they no longer have access to Burkina Faso’s Gold Mines.
I don’t believe our Federal politicians possess the testicular fortitude to banish the USA from our shores, even so, that banishment compact must be retained, as the USA is bankrupt.
As well as becoming a spent force militarily speaking, the nation’s GDP is collapsing, their hugely obese national debt has hamstrung the looming futures of the USA.
A couple of good comments thus far. I think Williambtm is giving an idenity to a long process. America DID come out as top dog during Industrialism, but it is cannabilising itself, a phenomena we also see in Australia: some sort or form of loss of imagination replaced with a stubborn, sleepish
formalism.
The trouble with the USA as to imagination is that in its haste to foresake inconvenient liberal and social democratic thinking it has become increasingly Hobbesian and reactive:
Fancy belting uni students around the head with billy clubs for simply stating the obvious. Someone’s slip was showing?
And any orb of light coming from the new presidency is rapidly fading. I want politicians to face the reality of civilisation’s perils instead living in an ivory tower in a dream world.
Yes and no, on Mont Pelerin Society the parallel or over arching entity is fossil fuel Atlas Koch Network (eg. late ‘segregation economist’ James Buchanan in both & locally IPA, CIS etc.); while universities gave boomers the advantage of free mass higher education, but have also been responsible for later issues.
The latter includes a comparative decline in numbers of domestic students post boomer ‘bomb’, demands for tax cuts &/or rises by same boomers and fully functioning Medicare for a modest levy (in my opinion should be increased) by boomers in retirement, with a house outside the pension asset mix.
Then complaints about high fee paying international students, numbers etc. mislabelled as ‘immigrants’, conflating with modest permanent capped migration, to inflate headlines to be deemed a weight on the nation without any credible evidence.
This has confused media and politicians for 20 years…. too easily….while absolutely ignorant. Our increasing old age dependency ratios, lack of literacies in maths/data, science/research process, language and finance/economics; allows manipulation by RW MSM, PR and lobbyists.
The same students, mostly from Asia, are temporary with a only minority eligible and/or successful for permanence.
They increase aggregate demand, pay fees & services (inc compulsory insurance) and $billions in GST, ten of thousands of family homestays (helps pay mortgage), fill some employment gaps, if happy, ‘word of mouth’ or soft diplomacy attracting friends and family as visitors or new students from offshore.
However, according to most Australians following RW MSM, by their reactions, any mention of immigration, population growth (in fact driven by Australians living longer, not ‘immigration’ in long term), housing, employment and international students are all mutually related and externally caused problems, inducing eye rolls……evidence of Australians being low info, low empathy and opposed to ‘the other’.
Although subsiding compared with UK, US and Europe local media angst and electoral dog whistling over all things (undefined) ‘immigration’ (thanks to -ve Tanton Nework agitprop) it has been misplaced and used to deflect from local issues, way too easily*….
Again the cliched conga line includes unions, universities, climate science/renewables, ‘woke’, LGBT, ‘the left is anti-semitic’, then younger and centrist empowered citizens have been the target…..
*Related anecdote, a low info & lazy rusted on ALP voting friend near retirement down Great Ocean Road, who thinks he is a right on hippy, was resentfully ranting and raving against climate/environmental science, renewables, solar & batteries don’t work etc.. He’s away at the moment, but now if viewing the 12 Apostles, there’s an oil rig in the background and barely a whisper in media ex Oz Inst.?
https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/gas-drilling-off-great-ocean-road-dangerous-and-unnecessary/
Wow. Utterly enjoyed Andrew Smith’s shot..
Never mind, blame a boomer if you’re still waiting for your excuse to blame the ALP.
But the ignoring of crucial issues in aid of the daydream won’t work forever. In the end, we see if stuff like Nuke/AUKUS/Gaza can be buried under spin or bell the cat for ordinary people…
That is all..