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established ‘needs-based’ approach to protection. In 1967 he outlined a new approach, developed to ensure that the Board's recommendations were consistent with the settled goals of national economic policy. This included a systematic public review of the structure and levels of protection, focusing on industries with high levels of protection, rather than the past focus on particular industries or products. It nominated levels of protection that indicated low, medium and high cost production (using ‘effective rate’, a measure of the protection accorded a process or industry rather than their outputs, developed by
Professor Max Corden). The Board foreshadowed its intention to use the effective rate concept (measuring the net protection accorded an industry as a result of the opposite effects of protection on its inputs and outputs) in deciding which industries were highly protected and thus most in need of review. It also identified improvements needed in the policy information system supporting its work. Rattigan introduced these improvements, important in reporting on the economy-wide effects of protection, in the early life of the Industries Assistance Commission.
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Treasurers on the other, stimulated intense public interest and discussion about the roles of advice and decision-making on protection. The
Minister and department regarded the changes proposed by Rattigan as a matter of policy, beyond the authority of the advisory body. Rattigan saw it as exercising his statutory responsibility for making transparent the criteria used in formulating recommendations. The resulting tension was inevitable, and became very public. Rattigan was at one point warned by the Minister against providing a public explanation of the proposed changes on the grounds that he would be in breach of his authority in expressing a view that may not be consistent with government policy.
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advice to governments in public reports. Until the mid-sixties its recommendations reflected the established ‘needs-based’ approach—that is, the level of protection needed to enable each industry to compete against international competition. Although its statute required it to report on ‘the operation of the Tariff and the development of industries’, its annual reports offered little insight into the economic consequences of the protection it recommended, and were generally limited to a description of those recommendations.
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The Tariff Board, which preceded the
Industries Assistance Commission, was established as an independent statutory body, charged with recommending assistance to ‘economic and efficient’ industries. It was required to hold public hearings on the matters referred to it by governments and to provide its
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His commitment to reform was not the product of economic rectitude. He believed that rational—that is, nationally rewarding—economic policies are the means by which we can produce the additional wealth needed to achieve our social goals. He reasoned that the national wealth available to service those
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In the mid-sixties, following a wide-ranging review of economic policy commissioned by the then
Australian government, the Board began to consider how the Board should respond to the quite limited policy guidance provided in its statute. Rattigan was aware of the adverse economic consequences of the
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His book
Industry Assistance:The Inside Story, published in 1986, provided an account of the struggle against protectionism in Australia during the 1960s and early 1970s. It described the extent of entrenched opposition, by private interest groups and within government and bureaucracy, to policy
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These changes were in stark contrast to the established approach to protection, an approach to which both the
Department of Trade and its Minister were strongly committed. The tension that developed between the Minister and Rattigan, and within Cabinet between Trade Ministers on the one hand and
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Early in the life of the commission, the
Australian Bureau of Statistics completed the integration of official data systems. This meant that it was possible to relate data on the structure of the economy to other official data collected. Rattigan sponsored the development, under Professor Alan
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In a policy environment catering for special interest groups, the commission's charter and procedures were designed to reflect the logic underlying market economics and democracy. The logic behind market economics assumes the existence of well-informed consumers, and the logic behind democracy
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The resulting framework, or its offshoots, is now used routinely by federal and state governments as an aid in understanding the likely consequences of other policy changes under consideration. This has introduced greater discipline and public accountability into policy decision-making.
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Rattigan did not use his access to the corridors of power to secure preferment or directorships, of which he had none. His enduring legacy is that the wealth
Australians now enjoy is, in no small part, the result of his struggle against protectionism.
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Rattigan's contribution to public policy was not limited to protection reform. As
Professor Max Corden has pointed out, the Industries assistance Commission under Alf Rattigan sponsored the introduction of general equilibrium modelling in Australia.
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Alf
Rattigan was appointed to chair the Tariff Board in 1963, and was subsequently the first chairman of the Industries Assistance Commission when it replaced the Tariff Board in 1974.
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assumes a well-informed community. That was the rationale for establishing the commission, structured to operate outside government and independent of private interest groups.
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goals sets the limit on our ability to provide better education and improved health care, and argued that any compromise on economic reform lowers that limit.
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Powel's leadership, of an analytical framework that equipped the commission to assess the economy-wide effects of changes in protection.
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243:. In January 1964, while Chairman of the Tariff Board, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
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Rattigan was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in January 1960 when he was a Deputy Secretary at the
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In January 1992 Rattigan was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contributions to public service.
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Between July 1960 and May 1963 he was Comptroller General of Customs and Permanent Head of the
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Alf Rattigan was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia on 16 November 1911. In 1925 he joined the
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162:(16 November 1911 – 29 February 2000) was a senior
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Rattigan died in Canberra on 29 February 2000 after a battle with prostate cancer.
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Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
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CA 62: Department of Customs and Excise, Central Office
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Deaths from cancer in the Australian Capital Territory
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The Industry Assistance Commission: The Inside Story
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was named Rattigan Street in Alf Rattigan's honour.
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Search Australian Honours: RATTIGAN, Godfrey Alfred
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Search Australian Honours: RATTIGAN, Godfrey Alfred
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Search Australian Honours: RATTIGAN, Godfrey Alfred
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178:as a 13-year-old cadet Midshipman at Jervis Bay.
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283:Rattigan, Godfrey Alfred (Alf) (1911–2000)
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654:Military personnel from Western Australia
629:Deaths from prostate cancer in Australia
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509:, Australian Government, archived from
489:, Australian Government, archived from
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441:Industry Assistance: The Inside Story
370:Industry Assistance: The Inside Story
192:transparency and to economic reform.
16:Australian public servant (1911–2000)
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290:from the original on 2 February 2014
424:: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (
396:: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (
63:25 July 1960 – 15 May 1963
634:Officers of the Order of Australia
286:, Australian National University,
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583:Department of Customs and Excise
328:, National Archives of Australia
183:Department of Customs and Excise
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51:Department of Customs and Excise
353:(Press release). Archived from
649:Royal Australian Navy officers
132:(m. 1940–2000; his death)
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351:"Public Service Appointments"
93:Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
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456:Effective Protection and I
412:Tariff Board Annual Report
384:Tariff Board Annual Report
302:"RATTIGAN, Godfrey Alfred"
166:official and policymaker.
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151:Godfrey Alfred Rattigan
81:Godfrey Alfred Rattigan
639:People from Kalgoorlie
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130:Winifred (née Odgers)
349:(26 November 1959).
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553:on 27 February 2014
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241:Department of Trade
235:Awards and honours
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25:Alf Rattigan
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614:2000 deaths
609:1911 births
572:Frank Meere
112:Nationality
603:Categories
368:Rattigan.
261:References
253:suburb of
137:Occupation
122:Australian
87:1911-11-16
579:Secretary
127:Spouse(s)
59:In office
47:Secretary
454:Corden.
332:16 April
288:archived
251:Canberra
581:of the
49:of the
255:Casey
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426:link
398:link
334:2014
98:Died
77:Born
155:CBE
30:CBE
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159:AO
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