Godfrey Alfred Rattigan CBE AO (16 November 1911 – 29 February 2000) was a senior Australian Public Service official and policymaker.
His book Industry Assistance:The Inside Story, published in 1986, provided an account of the struggle against protectionism in Australia during the 1960s and early 1970s.
Until the mid-sixties its recommendations reflected the established ‘needs-based’ approach—that is, the level of protection needed to enable each industry to compete against international competition.
Rattigan introduced these improvements, important in reporting on the economy-wide effects of protection, in the early life of the Industries Assistance Commission.
Rattigan was at one point warned by the Minister against providing a public explanation of the proposed changes on the grounds that he would be in breach of his authority in expressing a view that may not be consistent with government policy.
In a policy environment catering for special interest groups, the commission's charter and procedures were designed to reflect the logic underlying market economics and democracy.
As Professor Max Corden has pointed out, the Industries assistance Commission under Alf Rattigan sponsored the introduction of general equilibrium modelling in Australia.
Rattigan sponsored the development, under Professor Alan Powel's leadership, of an analytical framework that equipped the commission to assess the economy-wide effects of changes in protection.
[10] The resulting framework, or its offshoots, is now used routinely by federal and state governments as an aid in understanding the likely consequences of other policy changes under consideration.