Damien Cahill, ‘Harper review would reduce us from citizens to

Damien Cahill, ‘Harper review would reduce us from citizens to mere consumers.’ The
Conversation, 8 October 2014, accessed 6 May 2017. https://theconversation.com/harper-review-
would-reduce-us-from-citizens-to-mereconsumers-32282
In this news article, Cahill criticizes the Australian Competition Policy Review of 2014 that was
presided over by Prof. Ian Harper. According to Cahill, this policy is promoting neoliberal
economic procedures that are bound to create intense financial inequalities. This will be the case
since, as Cahill puts it, this review gives way to competition through marketization, privatization,
and deregulation. According to him, in our capitalist economy we are both citizens and
consumers simultaneously and we are becoming more and more interrelated. In regards to Cahill,
it is the right of all citizens to receive government services equally irrespective of their social
status quo.
Kuima (2008), says that citizenships is a connection conception grounded on the rationale of
equality between all citizens. Though equality has differing usages and articulations amongst
people, it requires every citizen to have equal right to participation. All citizens have equal rights
to participation not just in political but also in economic affairs. According to Kuima,
participation and civic activism empowers individuals and groups to take vital role in enhancing
their country’s economy. Just like Cahill, Kuima advocates for approaches that can eradicate
marginalization of the minority in benefiting from government services. Though the citizen’s
rights to relish public resources are being hampered by current events such as globalization that
undermine the value of equality, government is not justified to introduce policies which might
leave the citizens more underprivileged.