Chalmers' economic reform summit downgraded to red tape focus
Both the Treasurer and Anthony Albanese are lowering expectations to a point where major tax reform and proposals to rein in structural spending will be thrown in the 'too hard' basket.
Chalmers can't be faulted for his energetic approach to the Prime Minister's productivity roundtable, which the Treasurer rebadged as an economic reform roundtable open to big tax, investment and growth policy ideas.
By Friday, Chalmers would have met 75 chief executive and senior industry representatives.
After meeting the Business Council of Australia this week, he would have met the BCA and ACTU twice since his June 18 National Press Club speech outlining Labor's priorities for 'economic reform in our second term'.
From July 8 to August 15, Albanese government ministers will have held 41 ministerial roundtables that will feed in to Chalmers' three-day economic reform summit at Parliament House between August 19 and 21.
There have been 900 submissions to Treasury ahead of the roundtable, which won't be publicly released. In addition to messaging the PM almost every day about the roundtable, Chalmers has also spoken with Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson for about 30 to 40 hours about ideas being floated to lift sluggish productivity.
Despite Chalmers slaving away on what could have been a seminal moment for the second-term government's economic reform agenda, the roundtable is in danger of becoming a talkfest with generic promises of action.
The 23 'core attendees', who include CBA chief executive Matt Comyn, former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, Tech Council of Australia chair Scott Farquhar, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, ACTU secretary Sally McManus, BCA chief Bran Black and opposition Treasury spokesman Ted O'Brien, will be joined by 24 others invited to specific sessions. New invitees include ATO commissioner Rob Heferen, Tesla chair Robyn Denholm and Macquarie Group managing director Shemara Wikramanayake.
At the end of three days of talks – which will not be subject to Chatham House rules, meaning participants can speak their minds – Chalmers is not expected to unveil a communique or secure broad agreement across a range of economic reform proposals. Instead, he will give the nation an update on the top issues and commit to going away and working on them.
Major tax reform is expected to play second fiddle to a new primary focus: deregulation, cutting red tape, and sparking productivity in the housing sector.
There is no doubt all levels of government need to axe red and green tape that is stifling productivity and stalling economic activity and investment. But that surely could be progressed without so much rigmarole.
An alliance of up to 30 business and industry groups is calling for the government to match decisive action taken by British Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer and slash red tape by as much as 25 per cent by 2030. Without speeding up approvals, Labor's housing, renewables, emissions reduction and net zero targets will fall short.
After one term of not moving aggressively enough, Chalmers must bring governments with him and rid the country of red tape and slow bureaucratic processes.
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ABC News
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