Canberra-based academic Amanda Walsh has dedicated her most recent book to her late father, John Walsh of Berry.
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“This may be my book, but it’s his story,” Walsh said in the foreword of the book, ‘Globalisation, the state and regional Australia.’
The book, published on May 15, which focuses heavily on Shoalhaven case studies, explores the forces of globalisation on regional areas.
John Walsh was the son of a Jaspers Brush dairy farmer, and worked at the Shoalhaven Paper Mill.
The academic concludes case studies on the paper mill and Manildra show where government support and protection have been removed, industries suffered, and where government has dared to intervene in the market, the future looks considerably more secure.
For instance, the paper mill was established with significant assistance from the state, in the forms of direct financial assistance, infrastructure investment and tariff protection. The erosion of state help for the Australian paper manufacturing industry, coupled with strengthening of foreign competition led to the demise of the Shoalhaven business according to Walsh.
On the other hand, the government has been far more protective of Manidra’s future. She concludes the example of the ethanol manufacturing business at Shoalhaven Starches demonstrates that governments are still able to make policies that defy aspects of neoliberalism and globalisation.
Walsh ended the case study with a question – as for rationality involved in deciding when to defy neoliberalism and globalisation - that is very difficult to discern.
Anyone interested in how Shoalhaven industries have developed, including dairy, manufacturing and tourism industries, will take pleasure in reading the book.
The book published by Sydney University Press is available online or in paperback version.
Walsh is the associate director of government relations at Australian Catholic University, Canberra.