Post-WWII grand ideas

Agriculture, mining and manufacturing are typically the high productivity sectors of developed economies and, in Australia, they are embedded in competitive market environments. By the 1950s, Australia was the most protectionist country in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, after New Zealand, with an average tariff rate of about 30%. Australia's journey to a low tariff environment was difficult, uneven and challenging for the many protected industry sectors. Tariff protection had become a default setting for many sectors with Ville and Merrett claiming that during the 19th century 'producers had only to ask to receive all manner of "protection"'. Australia was one of the first countries to establish a universal pharmaceutical scheme. The initial scheme which began in 1948 subsidised the price consumers paid for a group of medicines for a limited group of Australians and used Australia's buying power to lessen patentees' monopoly power.