‘Tweedledee and Tweedledum': Albanese and Wong are ‘putting stress' on Australia-US alliance
'I am referring to the slack-jawed way our leader has decided to reward the terror group Hamas with the decision to recognise a Palestinian state with a visit to the UN,' Mr Price said.
'One can only wonder at the tone of the phone calls between other left-leaning leaders like France's Macron and the UK's Starmer in the lead-up to this.
'So, here we have Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Albo and Wong, courting votes from the Harbour Bridge march … and the Greens putting stress on the US alliance to support a fanciful notion that no one … in the Middle East thinks is ever going to happen.'
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ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Focus narrows on reducing regulation to boost productivity ahead of round table
Australia's productivity chief will assert that growth has not been a priority in policy making for years, citing the nation's growing tangle of regulation as evidence, in a speech ahead of Labor's economic reform round table this week. The warning coincides with a separate call from Australia's peak business bodies for red tape to be slashed by a quarter by the end of the decade, as Treasurer Jim Chalmers declared the government does "not want to settle for less" when it comes to productivity. Danielle Wood, chair of the Productivity Commission, will address the National Press Club on Monday, where she will argue there has been "less policy emphasis on growth and a declining reform appetite" across many wealthy nations in recent decades. "This manifests not just in less economic reform but in decisions by governments — federal, state and local — to pay less attention to growth trade-offs in pursuing other policy goals," she will say. "Nowhere is this more evident than in the growth of regulatory burden." Pointing to a significant increase in the number of words and conditional terms in acts and legislative instruments over the first two decades of the century, she will argue this "regulatory creep" is a symptom of the increasing demand for governments "to 'do something' every time an issue emerges". "When combined with Australians' tendency to look to government for answers — our 'Canberra fix' — we have ended up with a system that dampens growth." Business leaders, economists, unions and shadow treasurer Ted O'Brien will descend on Parliament House on Tuesday for a three-day meeting Mr Chalmers has billed as an opportunity to grapple with the big challenges facing the economy. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address the attendees at the beginning of proceedings on Tuesday, and later on Wednesday, he will host the attendees at the Lodge. But expectations that the forum will lead to significant reform in the short term have been tempered by the prime minister, who earlier this month talked down the prospect of tax changes emerging from the talks. The commission has released five reports in the lead up to the round table, culminating in what Ms Wood called a "to-do list" of recommendations that could "shift the dial" on growth. Among them are many aimed at improving government regulation, including things like employing digital tools to streamline approval processes. A leaked Treasury document prepared for cabinet, first reported by the ABC this week, featured a list of possible outcomes from the round table, including a pause to changes for the National Construction Code, measures to speed up housing approvals, and a national artificial intelligence plan to cut environmental red tape. It led the opposition to label the talks a "stitch up", a claim the government has dismissed, arguing it's not unusual that the department would have provided advice on some of the already received ideas ahead of time. Mr Chalmers and Mr Albanese both once again vowed they would not pre-empt any outcomes on Sunday, with the leader telling reporters in Perth that "the agenda is whatever people want to raise". He said ideas put forward will feed into the government's decision-making, including some that can be done immediately if adopted, others that will be implemented through federal budget processes, and some that tackle "the long-term challenges in the global economy, the impact on Australia, and how we deal with those issues". Ahead of the round table, 29 groups representing small, medium and large Australian businesses have launched a concerted campaign to cull red tape, warning that it needs to be easier to do business in Australia to attract investment. The alliance will also use the forum to call for reform of the approval process for planning and major projects, boosts for investment and innovation, and a process for "productive" tax reform that doesn't raise costs for consumers or businesses. Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chair Matthew Addison said the round table was an "opportunity to reset the economy in a way that supports business, not stifles it". "Our small businesses are buckling under the weight of excessive red tape, with regulatory burden and a patchwork of complex compliance obligations slowing growth," he said. Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black echoed that changes were needed to make it easier for businesses to operate, "so a cafe owner in Melbourne doesn't face 36 licences before they can pour a cup of coffee". He also pointed specifically to the need to cut red tape to make it faster to approve and build new homes, something the government has identified needs to happen to solve the housing crisis. Ms Wood will reference Productivity Commission research that found the time it takes to build houses and apartments has ballooned by 50 per cent over the past three decades. "It's not the time laying bricks that's blown out. It's the approvals processes: from planning, to heritage, to building approvals, environmental and traffic impact statements," she will say. "And these regulatory hairballs have found their way into almost every corner of our economy." According to Ms Wood, prioritising growth means there will be uncomfortable trade-offs, for example, heritage and density restrictions coming at the expense of more and cheaper housing, but that a "growth mindset means elevating growth and its benefits across all policy decisions". "It does not mean government should never intervene or pursue other conflicting goals, but the benefits of growth should not be traded away quietly or lightly," she will say. In an interview ahead of the round table, Mr Chalmers told the ABC that there was a lot of appetite in cabinet for cutting red tape and improving regulation where possible, and it would be a "really, really big focus" of the talks. "There are a number of reasons for our productivity challenge and we're going to chip away at trying to address it over time," he said. "We don't want to waste the next decade on productivity, the way our predecessors wasted the last, and that's what drives us." Andrew Bragg, the Coalition's shadow minister for productivity and deregulation, will also lay out the opposition's plan to increase productivity on Monday, arguing Australia has become "inefficient, bureaucratic and unproductive". "Many regulations are well intentioned, but we must now confront their cumulative effect," he will say, arguing it is costing the economy billions each year. Like Ms Wood, he will warn against the impulse of solving issues by simply announcing new laws or regulations. "More rules is always seen as good. The minister can announce the problem is solved. The caravan moves on. The dog barks," he will argue. "There is limited interest in how the new rules are enforced — unless there is a scandal." The Coalition's answer is deregulation, with a focus on "genuine enterprise with limited, rather than repressive, controls".
AU Financial Review
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