We cannot stop if the whole world around us is in motion Jean Monnet wrote in his memoirs. However this is not to say that the path has been easy and without criticism and scepticism on the part of some. It has been almost 40 years since the first European consultations and discussions on a monetary union took place.
So now to some of the issues, or challenges, that we face. The first is to reinvigorate productivity growth. Australia, like many other advanced economies has experienced slower productivity growth over the past decade. In our case, this has been partly due to a large increase in mining investment in response to soaring commodity prices.