Latest news with #treasurer
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Chalmers stares down ‘grumps and cynics' as he claims summit already a success before it begins
The treasurer claims the economic reform summit has already been a success – despite it not beginning until Tuesday and skepticism from some critics – because it has 'focused' Australians on productivity and red tape. Staring down 'grumps and cynics' in some political and media circles, Jim Chalmers claimed the three-day roundtable would help build the next three federal budgets and lead to greater cooperation between important voices in Australian public life. But even as he claimed the roundtable would 'build some consensus and build some momentum' toward reform, the treasurer downplayed any prospect of immediate major changes from the meeting. Chalmers said even reforms to road user charges for electric vehicles – which has widespread support among states and territories, with an outcome on the proposal expected to come from this week's meeting – didn't have a settled model or proposed start date. 'I'm confident that the effort put into this economic reform roundtable is already worth it,' Chalmers told a press conference on Sunday. 'We've focused the country on the productivity challenge. We've gotten people accustomed to dealing with the economic and fiscal trade‑offs that governments deal with every day.' Sign up: AU Breaking News email The summit will run from Tuesday to Thursday in Parliament House, with a focus on productivity, resilience and budget sustainability. But with the government already having ruled out large changes to tax, spending or contentious settings like negative gearing, some critics in the Coalition and media have said the summit risks devolving into a talkfest without the chance of meaningful outcomes. 'The usual suspects that will want these kinds of efforts to fail, that's pretty obvious,' Chalmers told Sky News on Sunday. 'There will always be the usual kind of grumps and cynics who say the usual grumpy and cynical things about this. Their argument essentially is to involve people less, which would seem to me to be a strange way to go about things.' Chalmers said there were no pre-ordained outcomes for the summit, despite a leaked document showing the Treasury department was preparing for potential changes to the national construction code, speeding up housing approvals and cutting environmental red tape. He said it was 'entirely unsurprising' that Treasury was considering advice about some significant proposals, and that those ideas would be discussed during the meeting. The shadow industry minister, Alex Hawke, said the opposition doesn't 'have a lot of expectations' for what comes after the summit, and said the government was short of ideas. '[Jim Chalmers] talks about his big productivity agenda, but what is it?' Hawke told Sky News. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'After four years in government, he's basically saying, let's have a roundtable and I'll hear all the best ideas and we'll come up with something. But they're already ruling out most of the productivity measures that you would take in this economy if you wanted to do something about productivity.' Anthony Albanese said ideas from the summit would feed into government decision making. 'There'll be some measures that can be done immediately if the government adopts them,' the prime minister said in Perth. 'There'll be some that feed into budget processes, but there'll be some about the long term challenges in the global economy, the impact on Australia and how we deal with those issues.' But despite signalling earlier in the week that a long-awaited outcome on a road user charge to replace the fuel excise could be in the works, Chalmers said important details were still to be decided. 'We haven't settled on a model or on the timing of implementation … we don't have a concluded view on the best model, we don't have a settled view on the best timing, but I think there is appetite,' he said. Chalmers noted the government had spoken about a road user charge for some time, hinting that he could pursue such a change in this term of government, without seeking a fresh election mandate. 'I know that there's appetite amongst the state and territory treasurers to progress this agenda. We did talk about it publicly before the last election. We have been working on it for some time.'
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
The economic roundtable is Jim Chalmers' chance for bold reform. Australians can't afford anything less
Jim Chalmers had a determined look about him this week, ahead of the government's much-hyped economic reform roundtable in Canberra. The atmosphere in the treasurer's office was reminiscent of the days immediately before a federal budget, with frenetic activity and an air of sleep deprivation among the small army of advisers. Preparations for the three-day event have been exhaustive and Chalmers works at a pace few people in the ministerial wing can sustain. Armed with a small page of handwritten notes, Chalmers told this column that the process of consulting with hundreds of individuals and organisations about how to turn around the country's productivity challenges had been more than worthwhile, as 30-odd attenders prepare to take their seats at the cabinet table on Tuesday morning. There's no doubt new approaches are needed. Productivity has barely grown at all since 2016. The stagnation in the Australian economy poses a threat to living standards, since working smarter is the long-run driver of securing higher incomes for households. Ken Henry, the former Treasury boss and summit invitee, puts the challenge another way. He calculates Australian workers have lost about $500,000 in potential pay rises over the past 25 years because of sclerotic productivity growth. 'I see it as three days to help inform three budgets,' Chalmers said, sitting at a conference table in the office previously occupied by Wayne Swan, his former boss and mentor. Family photos and a curated collection of books about politics and history dominate the space. Conscious of messaging and expectations in Canberra and beyond, Chalmers said outcomes from the roundtable would fuel and inform future decisions of the government, helping set a direction for Labor in this term of parliament an others to come. Solutions to emerging problems such as AI and an ageing population are also badly needed. Sign up: AU Breaking News email The event itself has required more than a little productivity already. Treasury received 900 submissions – twice the number of pitches received before Labor's jobs and skills summit early in the government's first term. Chalmers has held boardroom talks with business leaders and lobby groups, while ministers have convened more than 40 preparatory meetings of their own, attended by about 700 people. The Productivity Commission has released a slew of reports to guide the process. Bureaucrats in Chalmers' department have used AI to organise and structure this massive input of ideas, including the predictable mix of kite flying, influence peddling and ambit claims. On Friday, Chalmers sat down with his state and territory counterparts for the last of these events. Talking up consensus, the group agreed to work towards faster approvals for major infrastructure projects, to cut cumbersome and outdated regulation, to boost competition and build more homes more quickly. Some serious ideas are in the mix, illustrated by an awkwardly timed Treasury leak this week, which showed Labor was preparing to move forward with reforms to clear a backlog of 30,000 housing approvals held up by outdated environmental laws, as well as new rules for AI and a pause on changes to the National Construction Code. 'There's been a heap of effort,' Chalmers said. 'Working around the clock for four weeks to make sure that people's voices are heard and that we can shape up a meaningful and useful roundtable.' The meeting has become an organising tool for Labor's second term, including allowing Chalmers and Albanese to test ideas with voters and the media, and rule some ideas out. The prime minister has also stressed the government won't misjudge its mandate or foist new taxes on the electorate. Overdue ideas already firmly in need of resolution are being attached as well: changes to Howard-era national environmental laws will get a kick along and Anthony Albanese telegraphed this week that road user charging rules for electric vehicles would be thrashed out over the roundtable. Here a phased-in and staged approach is expected, treating heavy vehicles differently to ensure EV take-up continues to grow in line with the renewables transition. Labor might even come away with an idea or two for major reform proposals to take to voters at the next election, putting its thumping victory over Peter Dutton to use. But the lead-up to the summit hasn't all been smooth sailing. It emerged on Wednesday that Chalmers and Albanese had held a face-to-face meeting last week after a reported 'frisson' over expectations for the summit. Albanese appeared frustrated at some mission creep for the talks and the pair discussed the need to 'be on the same page' about major tax reform plans and the scale of Labor's ambition. After the story emerged, both were quick to say they meet all the time, while the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, talked up their cooperation at the heart of the government. Despite not wanting to shut down ideas ahead of the summit, Albanese and Chalmers have rejected calls to change the rate and base of the GST, and ruled out negative gearing and capital gains tax concession rule changes. The Australian Council of Trade Unions called for a four-day week for workers, without any loss of pay, a reform that feels both eminently possible in the future but too ambitious for the present. The Greens want Labor to move faster with expensive plans for universal childcare, an ambition Albanese is laying the groundwork for already, while the Coalition is both taking part in the talks and deriding them as akin to a tour of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. It is unclear who will play the role of Augustus Gloop in this scenario. Labor can't afford not to be bold. It has identified the productivity problem and told voters it is better placed than the Coalition to manage the economy. Chalmers wants to be remembered as a reforming treasurer, and aspires to higher office, but will need to convince his colleagues – and the sometimes more cautious prime minister – of the case for ambition. Chalmers and Albanese made their own job harder by raising the prospect of sweeping tax reform at the start of the process, only to quickly shut down some of the serious proposals in a bid to manage expectations. The best way to undermine claims that the roundtable is a stage-managed talkfest is to make it a success: to take up real economic reform options that drive growth and boost productivity. Strengthening the budget and lifting living standards is as necessary as it is difficult, but buy-in from roundtable participants will be a crucial start, even if Labor has to spend political capital to get the job done.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Jim Chalmers says environment laws need overhaul to stop people ‘burning cash waiting for approvals'
The federal treasurer says too many people across Australia are 'burning cash waiting for approvals to build things' while flagging the Albanese government's overhaul of environment laws could help boost productivity. Labor is planning to reform the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act after failing to deliver promised changes in its first term. Jim Chalmers, speaking to Guardian Australia ahead of next week's next economic reform roundtable, said better rules and processes were needed for faster approvals, while still protecting nature. 'It will be one of the main ways that people think through our regulatory challenges and our challenges around the time it takes to get projects approved,' Chalmers said. Sign up: AU Breaking News email 'In all the consultation I've been doing – in housing, renewable energy projects – there are too many instances where people are burning cash waiting for approvals to build things that we desperately want people to build.' Legislating a federal environment protection agency was a 'very high and immediate' priority for the re-elected Labor government, the new environment minister, Murray Watt, said in May. Watt signalled he wanted nature laws passed quickly to avoid another drawn-out political fight. The former Treasury boss and environment campaigner Ken Henry has pitched the redesign as a productivity measure, comments Chalmers welcomed in his Guardian interview. He said other stakeholders had expressed similar views about the Howard-era laws to him privately in recent months. 'The status quo is no longer acceptable on the EPBC Act,' the treasurer said. The goal of cutting cumbersome environmental regulation while maintaining environmental protections has eluded both sides of politics for more than a decade. The Abbott government campaigned against 'green tape' and gave state and territory governments sole responsibility for approving projects. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, scuttled a deal with the Greens to pass the so-called 'nature positive laws' at the end of 2024, fearing a backlash in resources-reliant Western Australia. Labor wants to push changes through federal parliament within 18 months, likely as one package of laws rather than in multiple stages – as attempted by the former environment minister Tanya Plibersek. Treasury included reforms to environmental rules that would free up an estimated 30,000 additional housing approvals in a list of potential outcomes from the roundtable, which was leaked to the ABC on Thursday. Chalmers said there were already 'green shoots' emerging in Australia's housing affordability and supply crisis, promising further moves to accelerate construction and planning approvals. Welcoming an uptick in recent official homebuilding data, the treasurer said Labor was determined to speed up approvals for as many as 65,000 new homes, part of efforts to build 1.2m new dwellings by 2029. 'We'll do better on housing if everyone does their bit,' Chalmers said. 'I'm confident that people in all parts of the system, investors, states and territories, certainly the commonwealth, the industry, there is a real appetite to work together to build more homes more quickly, and so that's why we've got such an open mind to the ideas that people have been raising with us.' The 1.2m target will be a challenge for the Albanese government, with Treasury and industry warning sluggish approval times and workforce shortages will make it hard to reach. But Chalmers said work by the housing minister, Clare O'Neil, and this week's change by corporate regulator Asic to review rules requiring superannuation funds to disclose stamp duty paid on residential real estate will help speed up new construction. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The so-called RG97 rule forces investors to declare stamp duty costs and is considered a deterrent to some investment. If implemented, the change could mean an extra 35,000 homes being built, Chalmers said. 'The last four or five datasets on housing, we've seen green shoots.' Chalmers used an address to the National Press Club on 18 June to suggest the roundtable could deliver concrete tax reform proposals, declaring that 'no sensible progress can be made on productivity, resilience or budget sustainability without proper consideration of more tax reform'. But weeks later, it was clear that the prime minister had become concerned the government was losing control of expectations, and moved quickly to rein in excitement over what the roundtable would achieve. 'The government will make decisions, and the roundtable isn't a substitute for government decision-making,' Albanese said on 6 August. Days later, the prime minister killed off any immediate hopes of tax reform. 'The only tax policy that we're implementing is the one that we took to the election,' he said. Labor has faced calls from unions for a minimum 25% tax rate on high earners. The ACTU called for a 25% levy on LNG exports and caps to limit diesel fuel rebate payments to big corporations, as well as a four-day week for some workers. The Productivity Commission has already proposed slashing the company tax rate to 20% for firms with less than $1bn in annual turnover, as well as a 5% net cashflow tax on about 500 of the country's biggest businesses, including miners and supermarkets. Albanese has ruled out changes to the rate and base of the GST and negative gearing, while changes to generous capital gains tax concessions and negative gearing rules for property investors look too politically sensitive. With expectations now firmly lowered, questions have been asked about the value of the three-day roundtable, particularly in the context of the enormous ministerial and departmental effort involved. 'There's been a heap of effort, working around the clock for four weeks to make sure that people's voices are heard and that we can shape up a meaningful and useful roundtable,' Chalmers said. 'I see it as three days to help inform three budgets.'
ABC News
03-08-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Negative gearing reform is back on the agenda, but younger voters now hold the power
It's time to put the 2019 election to bed, along with the messages we pretend were sent from voters from that disastrous campaign for Labor. It has been six years since Labor leader Bill Shorten took what were quite radical proposals to the voting public, including negative gearing reforms. Since that election, Australia has changed profoundly. We have endured a global pandemic with consequences we are only beginning to realise, and an acute housing crisis that has changed us. We have seen the biggest change to the demographics of the dominant voting bloc, with millennials and Gen Z now being the largest voting group in Australia, outnumbering boomers. By the next election, that shift will be even more profound. Voters younger than their mid-40s are consistently telling pollsters they believe the system is stacked against them. They have made it crystal clear they are hungry for change. The treasurer's productivity roundtable has now morphed into something much broader than simply delivering productivity reforms, and this is both worrying and exciting some stakeholders. Some in business circles believe it is increasingly being used to push for higher taxes. Those who want the tax conversation say it's about more effective taxes. Even fairer taxes. Remember fairness? Senior government sources strongly contest that this is an excuse to raise taxes. They say they are keen to cut taxes too, but need to pay for it somehow. That can't be from spending cuts alone. A reconfiguration of that tax system is the only answer. The Australian Council of Trade Unions yesterday declared they will use the productivity platform to call for bold reform to negative gearing and the capital gains tax at the government's productivity roundtable this month, proposing that the tax breaks be limited to one investment property. Sally McManus, the union's secretary, told Insiders the current arrangements should continue for five years, but after that date, "we've got to bite the bullet". "Otherwise, we're just saying 'too bad, young people, you're not going to be able to ever own a home,'" she said. "Since 2019, the problem has just gotten worse. It's going to continue to get worse unless the government is brave enough to do something about it." When it was in opposition, Labor took negative gearing reforms to the 2016 and 2019 federal elections, at which they were defeated. But they were defeated for a myriad of reasons. Their tax policies were only part of the story of that defeat. The ACTU's manifesto for reform will be resisted by some quarters, but their proposals achieve one important thing. They have restarted a conversation that Australians have said they want their leaders to be having. The tax burden is not being shared fairly, and governments that continue to ignore this reality risk losing the trust of younger voters who are hungry for reform. At the same time, the Productivity Commission has called for a 20 per cent tax rate on profits for companies with revenue of up to $1 billion. The commission also called for a new 5 per cent tax on net cashflow rather than profits, which could see some large companies pay a higher rate but would provide immediate tax relief for smaller companies seeking to build their capital. Already, this is being fiercely resisted by the big end of town. But it's time to involve a wider range of Australians from across the tax scale to have an input on what is fair and what is just. Perhaps the proposal won't work — who knows — but we should ventilate big and radical ideas, and we should applaud the Productivity Commission for thinking radically and creatively. Returning to the negative gearing conversation, you'll recall this was a scare campaign Peter Dutton unsuccessfully tried to inject into the May campaign. At the time, it forced Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers to deny that Labor was preparing to make changes to negative gearing. The issue re-emerged during the leaders' debate on the ABC, when Mr Albanese said he had not commissioned Treasury modelling on the potential economic impact of changes to the policy. His response prompted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to laugh and accuse him of lying. Reports first emerged last year that the federal Treasury had investigated a potential overhaul of the tax concessions awarded to property owners. "It certainly wasn't commissioned by us to do so," the PM said when asked during the second debate about the Treasury modelling. But Treasurer Jim Chalmers had publicly stated back in September that he had asked Treasury for "advice" about the subject, leading Dutton to claim in the debate that Albanese had a "problem with the truth". Chalmers then tried to draw a difference between that advice and "modelling". "I've said on a number of occasions now that I sought a view," the treasurer said. "Now that's different to commissioning modelling. The prime minister was asked about commissioning modelling. I sought a view." Chalmers said it was "normal practice" to seek advice on such a matter and that the Treasury's view was a change to negative gearing "wouldn't get the sort of improvement that we desperately need to see in our economy when it comes to supply". One thing is clear: the treasurer wants this debate. Whether the PM would be willing to champion this change is another matter. We do, however, have one precedent worth remembering. The PM was deeply resistant to changing the stage 3 tax cuts until the case had been made with the public, and then suddenly, he was into it. I suspect the same thing would occur on some of the bigger reform ideas. Kos Samaras, director at the political consultancy firm Redbridge, said there are profound generational shifts between the 2019 and 2025 elections. In 2019, Millennials and Gen Z made up just 26 per cent of the electoral roll, whilst Baby Boomers and older Australians still held sway, culturally and politically. But that was the last election where the latter group's decades-long dominance would be felt. "By May 2025, Millennials and Gen Z accounted for 42 per cent of enrolled voters, a generational bloc shaped by vastly different life experiences," he tells this column. "This is the first cohort since the Great Depression to believe their quality of life is worse than that of their parents. "They've come of age amid a housing crisis, climate anxiety, a global pandemic, inflation shocks, and broken career promises. "At the next federal election, this generational tide will become even more pronounced. "Millennials and Gen Z will be the most dominant voting bloc in the country, while Baby Boomers and older Australians will comprise just 27 per cent of the roll. "Hence, the ACTU-proposed negative gearing changes will resonate with younger Australians, and it would be a brave politician to ignore such a proposal." Over to you. Patricia Karvelas is host of ABC News Afternoon Briefing at 4pm weekdays on ABC News Channel, co-host of the weekly Party Room podcast with Fran Kelly and host of politics and news podcast Politics Now.
SBS Australia
11-07-2025
- General
- SBS Australia
From Bern to Nepal in a Land Rover
Click here for the interview with snake expert Heino Noelke . The interview with Reimer Moeller, treasurer of the German Brisbane Club , can be found here.
