Casting a sporting eye over Australia’s economy and society
20 January 2023 at 4:49 pm
Charities minister Andrew Leigh’s latest book melds his passions for sport, the economy and social justice.
What can Australia learn from sport about how to create a fair society and increase productivity?
That’s the question at the heart of a new book authored by Assistant Minister for Competition Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh.
Called Fair Game: Lessons from Sport for a Fairer Society and a Stronger Economy, the book is an embodiment of Leigh’s passions and areas of specialisation: sports, the economy and social justice. It’s written with a confidence and authority that compels page-turning, even for those who don’t know much about sport.
The central tenet of Leigh’s book will be familiar to those who know of Leigh and his previous writings:“Australia’s economic fitness plan has turned flabby” and it’s time to get back into shape. Inequality has risen, and Australians are disconnected from each other.
Sport may hold the solutions to these problems.
This is an evidence-based read, filled with statistics from sporting heroes gone by and some more recent, backed up by economic and social data.
Within the first few chapters, readers are left in no doubt that Australia’s economic competitiveness no longer reaches the heights of our sporting achievements.
By the middle, readers are more aware of the factors, borrowed from the sporting field, that could help solve the conundrum: competition, a stronger watchdog, rising wages, sportsmanlike behaviour, better education and training, and equality and diversity.
By the end, readers are left feeling that sport and the economy share more in common than first thought.
“Building a fairer society is a team sport, as is creating a stronger economy,” Leigh writes.
“There is no single solution to our social and economic problems, but the right set of ideas can work magic.”
This book certainly presents plenty of ideas, ripe for implementation.
Fair Game: Lessons from Sport for a Fairer Society and a Stronger Economy is published by Monash University Publishing.
