Mr Howard also signalled there would be further weakening of workers rights, a review of competition policy and liberalisation of media ownership, but offered scant details.

BBC: Australia's 'empty' economic agenda

And it wants a programme of liberalisation and privatisation to promote competition, increase productivity and cut consumer-price inflation.

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In the long run, liberalisation and competition will deliver lower electricity prices for companies and households alike.

ECONOMIST: Charge ahead

Moreover, the euro crisis is leading to more extensive reforms to repair battered public finances, increase liberalisation and bolster competition than would have seemed possible a few years ago.

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EU-American agreement, imbalance will grow, real competition will suffer in the medium term, and moves towards world liberalisation will, at best, creep along.

ECONOMIST: Schools and the state

The liberalisation that began in 1991 ushered in competition from imports and foreign investors.

ECONOMIST: Indian takeovers

Allan Asher, a former competition economist and now Energywatch's boss, highlights another problem: liberalisation may not have lowered prices as much as was hoped.

ECONOMIST: A liberalised market is put to the test

Liberalisation of mobile phones, and the prospect of full competition in the industry from January next year, has created tens of thousands of new jobs many more than have been lost as Deutsche Telekom slims down. (Not all of these jobs are glamorous hi-tech ones: they include hundreds of men digging up streets to lay new cables).

ECONOMIST: German jobs

The liberalisation of air travel has increased competition between big hubs, especially in Europe and the Gulf.

ECONOMIST: Airport privatisation

First, global telecoms liberalisation has brought thousands of new companies into the competition, including carriers, resellers, aggregators and call-back operators.

ECONOMIST: Commoditising telecoms