Though the Morrison government seems keen on putting the economy on life support while we ride out the crisis, attention is already turning to how we will rebuild once COVID-19 pandemic has passed.

I was, though, struck by a comment from journalist Niki Savva on ABC TV's Insiders program. She spoke of the need to resurrect our business system, and how difficult that is going to be.

My response was surely we need to take this opportunity to radically change the system that has so obviously failed both the planet and the people.

This led me to investigating how the Australian economy, and all that flows from it, works.

Since the 1980s, privatisation held sway. This is known as neo-liberalism.

Championed by Ronald Reagan in the US and Margaret Thatcher in the UK, it was brought to Australia by Labor prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.

The number of Australians languishing in under-employment or trying to exist on Newstart, stagnant wages, the failure to respond to the bushfire crisis in a timely manner, and the wholesale economic collapse from COVID-19 show that neo-liberalism has so thoroughly failed us.

Adopting the old adage of "never waste a crisis", can we ensure that the 99 per cent come out stronger from this crisis than we did from the global financial crisis, and ensure that this time the structures of inequality are seriously challenged?

Some imperatives come to mind. Top of the list of course is the adoption of the universal basic income, so as to provide everyone with a wage to cover a quality lifestyle. Closely following is the need for government, not just governance.

Bring the state back in as both a guarantor and a provider of social and economic security and solidarity.

Also provide support bailouts for essential industries, but only with strict conditions.

Localism before globalism will be necessary. Support solutions which encourage local self-reliance, social networks and local economic exchange, and which reduce our dependence on complex supply chains.

Also important is real internationalism, as opposed to cosmopolitanism. Promote solidarity across countries and regions and ensuring all emerging treatments are available to all people globally. We must be prepared to bring into public ownership key sectors that are struggling. Other bailouts should be conditional on adapting corporate activities to the public good.

But we can go further, for as Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt wrote: "We need a political revolution to address the crises in inequality, climate and jobs which are smashing Australia, paving the way for a radical Green New Deal to overhaul the country's entire economy."

It's a term popularised by progressive US politicians Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; it's been popular with environmental activists for years before that, and it traces its roots back to the depression era "new deal".

The Green version is a wide array of proposals, not all related to climate or "green" ideas; but all linked to ideas of fairness, equality and reform. Academic and political economist Tash Heenan explained: "It's about tackling the climate crisis and an economic crisis at the same time. It's a structural solution to structural problems that are connected to each other - you can't separate economy from environment. It's adaptation and mitigation together. It's an enormous mobilisation of resources and investment, in a way that's socially fair. This includes giving people good jobs, and investing in energy, housing and health."

"It recognises we can't keep going the way we're going, whether that's politically, economically or socially," Dr Natalie Osborne, lecturer in the School of Environment and Science at Griffith University said.

Bandt explained: "I want to make Australia the renewable energy superpower where people bring their businesses from overseas for cheap, clean electricity as we urgently phase out coal."

But one thing needs to be clear. A Green New Deal must not be a way of saving free market capitalism. It is an opportunity to both restructure our society and mitigate climate change, thereby saving the planet and the people.