Latest news with #RealEconomicRoundTable
Sky News AU
9 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Matt Canavan delivers stark warning about Australia's poor growth, large debt after Sky News Real Economic Round Table
Australians are in for a 'major economic shock' if action is not taken to bolster growth and productivity while slashing government spending, Nationals Senator Matt Canavan has warned. Mr Canavan and Sky News convened leading experts for the 'Real Economic Round Table' in response to the Albanese government's closed-door economic reform roundtable. While Labor's roundtable ruled many topics off the table, the Sky News forum left nothing out of bounds. Following the roundtable, Mr Canavan said changes to boost Australia's flailing productivity and efforts to reel in government debt and spending, which is $300b more annually than pre-pandemic, were both crucial to the health of the nation's economy. 'If we continue to have this stagnant productivity performance - in the last few years it's fallen off a cliff - (and) if that continues, we're going to suffer a major economic shock of some kind,' he said on Business Now. 'We're going to have a reckoning. There will be an economic reckoning of all the debt that's been built up over the last 20 years - both public and private - that can no longer be serviced if we don't have a strong growing economy.' He highlighted Australia's strong growth throughout much of the time since the start of the century which has allowed the nation to borrow. 'But not right now,' Mr Canavan said. '(Over the) last few years we haven't had that high growth so if that continues there's only so long it can continue before it ends.' Mr Canavan warned the writing may already be on the wall for Australia's economic downturn, as he pointed to major Australian companies that have recently announced job cuts or major layoffs. 'I do think our economy is hurtling down the pathway where it could look fine for a while and then suddenly it's off a cliff,' he said. 'This week, you've seen 3,000 jobs lost at CSL, we see the rise of AI, we see earnings fall for BHP (and) Woodside. 'There is a certain drum beat here that things aren't going that well and we'd be much better off fixing those issues while unemployment's still got a four in front of it and our economic growth is still positive, rather than in a year's time.' Alongside the discussion about debt and the nation's growth, the experts at the Sky News roundtable also laid out four actions the government needs to take to restore productivity in the economy. These were scrapping bracket creep, cutting government spending by four per cent, curbing new NDIS entrants and ditching net-zero emissions targets.
Sky News AU
21 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Business veteran Maurice Newman tears into Treasurer Jim Chalmers' economic agenda, labels it 'Chinese-style socialism'
Treasurer Jim Chalmers' promotion of 'Chinese-style socialism under the banner 'stakeholder capitalism'' has come under fire by an Australian business veteran during Sky News' Real Economic Round Table. Nationals Senator Matt Canavan invited an array of leaders for a roundtable to discuss Australia's flailing productivity and energy woes. It took place as Mr Chalmers convenes Labor's private productivity summit in Canberra with an array of business, union and policy figures. Among the atendees of the Real Economic Round Table was Maurice Newman, an Australian business veteran who has served in a range of public roles including chair of the ASX, the ABC and the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council. He tore into the Treasurer's large-spending agenda. 'Australians wait for someone to expose the emperors who have no clothes. Sadly, Treasurer Jim Chalmers is one such emperor,' Mr Newman said. 'Dr Chalmers promotes Chinese-style socialism under the banner 'stakeholder capitalism'. 'His mastery of spin uses the title 'humanising capital', but the philosophy is the same.' Mr Newman attacked the Treasurer over an essay he penned in 2023, where Mr Chalmers slammed neoliberalism and called on business to co-invest with government. 'Dr. Chalmers believes that businesses should be judged on their corporate social responsibility, not just financial metrics,' the business veteran said. 'He advocates 'the transformation of the welfare state into a managerial utopia with the government in collaboration with superannuation funds acting as benevolent resource allocators through which autocratic technocratic elites will manage all aspects of society'. 'What could possibly go wrong?' Labor's economic outlook was similarly ripped in to by former Productivity Commissioner Gary Banks who said the Albanese government's 'productivity agenda is mainly a spending more agenda'. He pointed to large spending on the NDIS, renewable energy and manufacturing subsidies as detriments to productivity and living standards. 'The diversion of resources to the public sector has been a major contributor to the decline in productivity growth in Australia,' Mr Banks said. 'Most parts of the public sector not only have lower productivity but they have inherently slower productivity growth. 'This reflects not just the greater labour intensity of the services concerned but weaker incentives to use resources in a cost-effective way and to pursue cost reducing innovations.' Alongside the criticisms of Labor's economic agenda, the experts at the Sky News roundtable also laid out four actions the government needs to take to restore productivity in the economy. These were scrapping bracket creep, cutting government spending by four per cent, curbing new NDIS entrants and ditching net-zero emissions targets.
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Real Productivity Roundtable reveals four ways to save Australia
The nation's leading economists and industry experts have come together for Sky News' Real Economic Round Table
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Sky News Real Economic Round Table takes on ‘elephants in the room' after Albanese government's productivity summit flop
The nation's leading economists and industry experts come together for the Real Economic Round Table, filling the void of Labor's productivity summit flop. Join to stream the event live from 9.50am Tuesday. Business Editor Ross Greenwood and Nationals Senator Matt Canavan have invited a panel of economists and business leaders to discuss how to face the country's productivity problem. After Treasurer Jim Chalmers' put together his performative and secretive productivity summit, Sky News decided to put the real issues on the table for public debate. 'It's a complete farce. It's a stage-managed, choreographed effort to hide the fact the government doesn't have an agenda to fix productivity,' Mr Canavan told Sky News. 'The roundtable I've organised is in response to the fact the government hasn't tackled or isn't tackling the real issues here. 'We've got enough room to recognise all of the elephants in the room like energy prices, like industrial relations, there is no topic that is off limits in the discussions.' Guests at the Real Economic Round Table include former productivity commission chairman Gary Banks, and former assistant treasury secretary David Pearl. They will also be joined by Aidan Morrison from the Centre for Independent Studies, Scott Hargreaves and Daniel Wild from the Institute of Public Affairs, Nick Jorss of Coal Australia and Alex Underwood from Beetaloo Energy Australia. Meanwhile, Treasurer Jim Chalmers' roundtable has attracted heavy criticism amid concerns that some of the outcomes were predetermined before the event even began. A leaked document to the ABC showed a number of recommended outcomes for the productivity round table before the event had even begun. Judo Bank Chief Economic Advisor Warren Hogan told Sky News he had little confidence in the process. 'I'm not overly optimistic and I don't say that just to sound pessimistic about what's going on,' he told Sky News. 'But there are a lot of things that have been taken off the table which relate directly to our productivity problems and are the reason our living standards are going back. 'The real problem is that a lot of the so-called solutions that could come out of this could well end up not doing much or worse, making matters harder for the economy.' Motley Fool Chief Investment Officer Scott Phillips said the government summit risked being little more than performance. 'We've… seen Treasury has prewritten some of the outcomes. So whether they come to pass or not, is an open question that was leaked a few days ago,' he said. 'They'll all sit around, they all talk, lots of photo opportunities... That's what these things generally tend to do. They're performative more often than not. 'It's the old 'Yes Minister' line of 'Never hold an enquiry unless you know the outcome'.' The Real Economic Round Table, by contrast, promises to put issues like energy costs and industrial relations front and centre, with no topics off limits.
