Australia and the international financial architecture — 60.pdfVIP

Australia and the international financial architecture — 60 years on 1 This paper was presented by Dr Ken Henry, Secretary to the Treasury as the Sir Leslie Melville Lecture on 16 July 2003. The paper explores the tensions surrounding Australias decision to join the International Monetary Fund (IMF), discusses changes in the world economy since the 1940s and the new tensions that have emerged for the IMF and its various members. The paper reflects upon the future direction of the IMF and the broader international financial architecture, including the role that Australia might play. 1 This paper has been prepared with the considerable assistance of a number of people in the Treasury, most notably Adam McKissack, Martin Parkinson, Alice Peterson and Karen Taylor. If the paper is to be cited, these names should appear as co-authors. 69 Australia and the International financial architecture — 60 years on Introduction My lecture today is given in memory of Sir Leslie Melville. Sir Leslie had a long and distinguished career in Australian public policy, economics and education, and his legacy lives on in many of our present institutions. Sir Leslie held many influential positions during his career but today I wish to focus on one aspect of his career — his role as head of the Australian delegation to the Bretton Woods conference in 1944 and later as Australias representative at both the IMF and World Bank. Specifically, I would like to use the opportunity of this memorial lecture to reflect upon the system Sir Leslie helped bring about and its relevance to the modern world economy, almost 60 years on from the Bretton Woods conference. After giving some background on Australias decision to join the IMF, and the tensions surrounding that decisio