Response by Tim Harcourt, Author
The American Club, Sydney
Tuesday, June 10th 2008
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Top: "I officially declare The Airport Economist airborne!" Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the book launch.
Bottom: Come fly with me: Tim Harcourt, author, Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and Allen & Unwin Executive Chairman, Patrick Gallagher at the launch of The Airport Economist.
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Thankyou Deputy Prime Minister for a wonderful speech, and thankyou one and all.
Thanks for coming out on a Tuesday night in the fabulous city of Sydney.
I know you've all made great sacrifices coming tonight – particularly Ross Gittins – who has given up half-price Tuesdays at the movies - to be here tonight. You don't serve as distinction as the Sydney Morning Herald's economic editor for 30 years without picking up a few tips about price discrimination along the way.
And of course, there are some apologies tonight. Kath & Kim who play a cameo role in The Airport Economist are currently filming in the US at the moment and therefore are exporting too! And that's a good thing Kim always says "exporting makes you 'effluent'."
Tonight is all about celebrating this new expanding world of popular economics. We've had Freakonomics in the USA, The Undercover Economist in the UK and now its Australia's turn with The Airport Economist. We're taking economics back to the people, folks and now Australia is doing its bit!
So why The Airport Economist?
It all comes down to Frank Sinatra. As a child in the 1970s I watched Bob Hawke as President of the ACTU ground Frank Sinatra at the airport on his visit to Australia. This made me think I had to either work for the ACTU or work for in the travel industry to get anywhere when I grew up.
When I was 15, I went to the ACTU and the then President Cliff Dolan (Bob's successor) told me to get an economics degree and 'come back in about 10 years'.
I also went to Qantas and they told me to learn several languages or do some training so I could be a pilot or a L.A.M.E. or a flight attendant.
In the end, it was just as well, I didn't become a flight attendant. Because as British actor Ralph Fiennes, said in an interview recently it is better to be a passenger than a flight attendant as there's better job security and more chance of an upgrade.
But I did go back to the ACTU 10 years later as Cliff told me to and got a job as a research officer/advocate and also to look after the airlines.
In fact, when I was there, the ACTU wanted to start an airline to take on Qantas and Ansett after the failure of Compass. But 'Air ACTU' didn't get off the ground as we couldn't get the left wing and right wing to balance, and no one wanted to go business class as they'll all wanted to fly working class.
So in the end I have been very lucky and in the words of the Minister for the Environment and Federal Member for Kingsford-Smith, Peter Garrett, I have had "the best of both worlds." I have been able to work for both the ACTU in economics and aviation and the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) in both trade and travel and have been able to become The Airport Economist.
I was very lucky to work for the ACTU – working with such greats a Bill Kelty and Greg Combet – and at Austrade I feel that I have the best job in the world. It's exciting, intellectually stimulating, you get to help Aussie business to export and invest to the benefit of the whole Australian community and actually get to 'practice' economics in an interesting way.
And as economists are always speaking to themselves about the virtues of free trade and globalisation, I thought writing a book like The Airport Economist was the best way to spread the good word about the benefits of trade to the wider community as exporting helps to create high-paid, high quality jobs for Australian workers and their families. As Bill Kelty said on the weekend when he received his Australia Day honour, the only way we can guarantee good quality jobs and improved living standards for Australian workers and their families is by being internationally competitive and engaging with the rest of the world.
And speaking of working families, I have a few 'families' to thank for their work on The Airport Economist.
First of all, the Allen and Unwin family – Patrick Gallagher, Rebecca Kaiser, Sarah Hickie and Fiona Wilson. It's a great honour to be involved with Allen and Unwin, an icon of Australian publisher and a great Australian exporter in their own right. Thank you to Patrick for, in the words of those great Swedish philosophers Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, for "taking a chance on me". And I'd particularly like to thank my fellow Allen & Unwin author and mentor, Ross Gittins who has been so generous to me in my development as both an economist and a writer.
Secondly, there's the Austrade family, here in Australia and right around the globe. Austraders are wonderful people. When I was in Lima, Gustavo from Austrade Lima picked me up at the airport at 3am, even though when he was told the chief economist was coming he was expecting someone who looked like Karl Marx with long great hair and a beard. In Rio, Lorraine helped save me during an altercation on the Copacabana and in Bucharest, Liviu up my family ancestry at the Jewish museum in Romania in his spare time. I have got say they are wonderful people in Eastern Europe – very friendly, warm and affectionate. I noticed there that my female colleagues would often kiss you on the cheek as a greeting, and the number you got increased as you moved eastwards. In fact, I asked Ana, my colleague from Austrade Warsaw if this was a custom and she gave me a smile and a wink and said "Just wait until you get to Vladivostok!!" And here at Austrade's global head office in Sydney, Gregory Harvey and his media team have been fantastic, the web, marketing and information and analysis teams have been tremendous and I must also thank my bosses who are here tonight CEO Peter O'Byrne, and Deputy CEO Peter Yuile and his predecessor Leith Doody for backing me too.
Thirdly, thanks to my own family. As Julia has pointed out we are partly Transylvanians and not real Harcourts at all. But there's a story to this. Our grandfather Ken was originally named, Kopel Harkowitz, the son of immigrants from Transylvania (which is sometimes considered Romania, sometimes Hungary – if I am talking to Frank Lowy, it's definitely, Hungary) and Poland. Kopel's mother always wanted to him to be a Rabbi, but young Kopel, saw being an atheist as a bit of an occupational hazard in that line if work and instead wanted to be a true blue Aussie lifesaver at Bondi. He had trouble getting in the life saving club as Kopel Harkowitz but when he fronted as Ken Harcourt, they said 'no worries'. So that's why we called Harcourt not Harkowitz. And when Harry Markowitz won the Nobel Prize for Economics, I thought Dad could claim it was a typo and get on the plane to Oslo. But I must add that when I asked my grandfather why he changed our name, he used to say: 'Well, what's in a name? And I didn't really change my name; I just left the Goldberg's and joined the Ice Bergs'.
As well as my family overseas (the 'Adelaide exports' mentioned by Julia) I have some immediate family here today. My wife Jo and four year old Chinese born daughter Yun Shi, along with my brother Rob Harcourt and his partner Heidi and my sister Rebecca Harcourt. My daughter Yun Shi Harcourt will be giving a press conference later about her views on the Chinese exchange rate in English and Mandarin. Yun Shi has some strong views. For example, whenever Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appears on television, Yun Shi says: "That's Kevin, he can speak Chinese. But you can't Baba. But that's ok; I will be your teacher." And when the Deputy Prime Minister appears on TV, she says: "That's Julia, Uncle Rob's friend."
And that leaves me to thank Uncle Rob's friend Julia Gillard, who happens to be Australia's first female Deputy Prime Minister and tonight the Acting Prime Minister. Julia, thankyou for taking time out of the most massive work load of any living Australian to launch The Airport Economist. You have taking on your portfolios with great vigour and you conducted yourself with such grace and dignity throughout the election campaign despite all the pressures that you face in public life.
When I was a uni student I was getting frustrated with all the student politicians and the fun and games of the Adelaide Uni Labor Club and Rob gave me some elder brotherly advice. He said: "Forget the others, and watch Julia. She's not a trendy, she's fair dinkum. She's a coalminer's daughter from Wales and she's going to be a Labor Politician one day. Mark my words; Julia will go a long way."
And as a real marine biologist (unlike George Costanza in Seinfield who just pretended to be a marine biologist in order to impress potential girlfriends – and look at Rob – it works!) my brother was right. Julia Gillard has come a long way, and not only that, mark my words, Julia Gillard will go a long way, as tonight's performance has shown.
Well I started my remarks with Frank Sinatra and I'll leave you with him. In conclusion, thankyou Julia, thanks you Patrick, and thankyou all for coming. I hope you have as much fun reading The Airport Economist as I did writing it and that one day, as ol' blue eyes used to say you'll – "come fly with me."
Thank you, goodnight and good luck.
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