Making Australia Great

2015 • Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Eligible
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Season 1 episodes (3)

1 Bad Hair Decades
2/3/15
Season-only
From the 1960s, when there was full employment, George charts how in the 1970s this golden age, and its closed economy, was smashed by shock after shock. As the country suffers stagflation and gets angry, reforms become an urgent matter of economic survival.
2 Growing Pains
2/10/15
Season-only
In the 1980s, as the economy is radically overhauled by the Hawke/Keating government, there are winners and losers, and society is remade. The new challenge becomes how to best manage the roller coaster ride of the free market.
3 Australia's Second Chance
2/17/15
Season-only
With a well regulated open economy, but a liking for living the good life on credit, Australia must face the worst crisis since the depression. How we avoided the GFC (just) is told by the leaders who were there. George considers how to make sure we keep Australia's winning streak going by learning the lessons of history.

About this show

In this engaging three-part series, Making Australia Great, award-winning author and journalist George Megalogenis takes us on a unique journey to find out how Australia has become the envy of the world. Enlisting the support of six former Prime Ministers as well as a host of significant contributors, George goes back in time and delves into our cultural memory to uncover how we managed to be the last rich nation standing after the GFC, and what we need to do now. Featuring interviews with Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, John Howard, Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Malcolm Fraser, Peter Costello, Wayne Swan, Ken Henry, Ian Macfarlane, Glenn Stevens, Paul Volcker, Peter Garratt, Rob Sitch and more...