Addressing market failures
Labor values the great strengths of open, informed and competitive markets but believes that clear rules are necessary for markets to function fairly and efficiently.
The global financial crisis has demonstrated the effects of excessive speculation, unrestrained greed and unchecked market forces. This crisis has also called into question many of the assumptions that have underpinned the regulatory frameworks that clearly failed to prevent a crisis that risked the stability of the entire global financial system. Hundreds of millions of people across the world have suffered severely from the economic and social consequences of these excesses.
Labor does not believe that a fair and prosperous nation can be built by simply allowing individual self-interest to be given free rein, and we do not believe that the income distribution generated by markets should be regarded as natural or inherently just. Labor believes in the need for properly regulated markets to balance private incentive with public responsibility, reflect the social obligations of all participants in a market economy, manage risk and foster productive investment.