When I first visited Thailand, in 1985, both nations had cheap and efficient postal services. When I returned, twenty-five years later, that could only be said about one country – and it wasn’t Australia.

Time is not what you think.

Australia wasn’t perfect in 1989 by any means, but something approximating that could be imagined. However, there was a change of emphasis, as if the toss of a coin had landed on the side of economics instead of people. We could find our own way, or we could copy the US and the neoliberals. We chose the latter, via Margaret Thatcher.