EDITORIAL: Australia needs to allow business to flourish to drive the economy
We need to encourage business to innovate, invest, grow. To increase the size of the economic pie.
Australia is fortunate to be blessed with natural advantages.
The resources that lie under our feet and beneath our oceans. The know-how to develop them. The open spaces. The climate.
Our opportunities abound.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.To capitalise we need to ensure we get legislative and regulatory settings right.
We need to encourage business to innovate, invest, grow.
To increase the size of the economic pie.
The issue will be at the forefront of the message delivered on Tuesday night at the Business Council of Australia annual dinner in Sydney, which will be attended by Anthony Albanese, cabinet ministers and business leaders.
BCA chief executive Bran Black, according to comments released ahead of his speech, will warn that many Australians were finding it difficult to get ahead.
“They see it in the rising cost of everyday essentials. They see it in the difficulty of buying or renting a home. And they feel it when their wages and living standards simply don’t keep up,” he will say.
“Now, we all know that these problems have something in common. And that’s that, ultimately, our living standards depend on our ability to grow the economy and create more prosperity.
“Australia cannot tax, regulate or redistribute its way to higher living standards.
“We have to grow and we have to become more productive.
“To do this, we have to create the conditions for businesses to invest, innovate, expand and employ more Australians,” Mr Black will say.
But the course the nation is taking at the moment is falling short, stifled by Labor’s red and green tape, outdated policies, restrictive ideology and complex industrial relations settings.
The Albanese Government’s tax-and-spend approach was highlighted last week when gross Commonwealth Government debt surpassed $1 trillion for the first time.
The Parliamentary Budget Office has forecast that national public debt interest payments will climb from $54.2b, making up 1.8 per cent of GDP during this financial year, to $77.2b in 2029-30, making up 2.2 per cent of GDP.
More spending on the nation’s credit card means more money wasted on interest payments, rather than being put to much-needed productive use.
The impacts of regulatory constraints are not mere theories.
As reported in The Nightly, some of Australia’s biggest companies have taken aim at the nation’s excessive regulatory environment, saying it’s pushing up the cost of doing business and making the country lose its investment edge.
Woodside boss Liz Westcott warned of concerns over the Federal Government’s contentious domestic gas reservation proposal.
Coles said while it supported regulation that protected consumers and promoted competition, it must be clear and practical.
Chief executive Leah Weckert pointed to more than 220 pieces of legislation that apply to the supermarket giant.
And Rio Tinto sounded the alarm over Australia’s fading edge in the global race for mining investment.
The warnings are clear.
Much rests on the Albanese Government getting the message.
And acting to provide the environment in which business can flourish.
Failure to get this right can inflict significant long-term damage on the nation.
