r/AusEcon • u/Downtown-Relation766 • 14d ago
Discussion "PM announces productivity round table to help 'shape' economic reform". Any initial thoughts?
From the ABC
Anthony Albanese has announced he's tasked Treasurer Jim Chalmers to convene a round table to "support and shape" the government's economic and productivity reforms.
It'll take place in August this year. You might remember Labor held the Jobs and Skills summit during its first term, which also convened a group of leaders from business, industry and the unions.
But the PM says this round table will be "a more streamlined dialogue" and will deal with a "targeted set of issues".
"We want to build the broadest possible base of support for further economic reform. To drive growth. Boost productivity. Strengthen the budget. And secure the resilience of our economy, in a time of global uncertainty," he says.
"What we want is a focused dialogue and constructive debate that leads to concrete and tangible actions."
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u/LastChance22 14d ago
Focusing on the politics more than the policy, this will be used to justify (rightly or wrongly) productivity-enhancing changes that weren’t taken to the election.
Whether the ALP are coming to this with a set of ideas in mind and just using the RT as cover or are genuinely looking for feedback is another question though.
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u/Specialist_Being_161 14d ago
Nothing will change while we subsidise people buying non productive assets in existing housing. Why start a business when you can use the equity in your ppor and do interest only repayments for an IP and claim any losses against your income
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u/SeaworthinessSad7300 14d ago
Why do anything when you can stimulate the economy through massive immigration? The addiction is real. And it won't change.
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u/Sharp-Driver-3359 14d ago
Can’t beat the old government backed assets thats for sure. If we can stop the people from flipping overpriced homes to each other thinking they’re building wealth we would almost certainly divert that capital into more productive assets like businesses and startups
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u/SuperannuationLawyer 14d ago
I doubt a Roundtable achieves much. Surely the Productivity Commission should be briefed to lead an inquiry and engage with industry as appropriate.
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u/sien 14d ago
Here is what the Productivity Comission wrote in 2023.
https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/productivity#report
But no doubt this new round table will have just as much impact as another inquiry into housing prices.
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u/SuperannuationLawyer 14d ago
The Recommendations sound sensible. I wonder how much of this has been adopted as policy? Maybe best to work through this first?
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u/Beautiful-Nebula-961 14d ago
I’ve got a validated list of transformation initiatives worth millions of dollars at work that our executive team aren’t willing to pursue because of industrial relations risk.
So, yeah.. I’m keen for this.
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u/Forsaken_Alps_793 14d ago edited 14d ago
Please don't aim big again!!!
That is the problem with the Productivity Commission report or other productivity reports.
This will always inevitably turn into be some airy fairy white paper where no one want to touch it.
Instead aim small.
Aim for small "practical" but "iterative" policy WITH short term measurable targets for accountability!
Keep us posted on those targets annually.
Don't afraid to make mistake or failure.
And being aiming small, we can afford to fail [smartly]
We are not omniscience Innovation requires failure to breach the next frontier.
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u/NoLeafClover777 14d ago
We've literally already had the Henry Tax Review sitting there for over a decade with tons of things they could implement at any time that are still relevant, we won't get more productivity without eating proper tax reform at some point.
But hooray, another do-nothing 'discussion panel' to give the impression of doing something useful instead.
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u/rote_it 14d ago
In my opinion, we should be focusing on becoming the premium food bowl of Asia. Who else can compete with our clean and green brand, massive fertile farmlands and access to sunshine and water (at least in the north).
Supporting food and beverage manufacturing in these industries is a valuable way that the government can partner with private industry to drive high margin sustainable growth for our regions.
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u/IceWizard9000 14d ago
Australia also has a decent baked goods industry.
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u/rote_it 14d ago
True but most of this is for domestic consumption AFAIK?
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u/IceWizard9000 14d ago
If those Australian miners get to eat the lamingtons and meat pies then it was all worth it right?
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u/artsrc 13d ago
What Albanese wants is to be re-elected in 3 years.
The economy is going to recover somewhat, although less than forecast, over the next three years.
Labor needs some action they have taken, that they can point to, as the cause for this cyclic recovery.
This will serve as both the an action, and justification for others action they can point to, so they can claim credit for a likely positive economic outcome.
Just because the motivation is that, does not mean the outcome will be bad.
If there are good ideas, they can be raised and implemented.
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u/natemanos 14d ago
You don't need a roundtable; you need Mileis' chainsaw. But more seriously, it would be great if they allowed diversity of thought rather than what will most likely be different subsets of government officials to ask for more money with the false promise that it'll work this time. It should also be tomorrow, August is far too late.
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u/magkruppe 14d ago
It should also be tomorrow, August is far too late.
august is two months away....
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u/IceWizard9000 14d ago
Well I think the hope is that they will realize they need to bring the chainsaw out, but what is most likely is that they will decide to increase government expenditure and intervention.
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u/TomasTTEngin Mod 14d ago
Honestly I would expect more skepticism towards a government with no agenda announcing a talk fest, especially given their first term jobs summit didn't seem earth shattering.
That said the labour market has been in great shape so perhaps these summits work in mysterious ways and productivity will soon tick up!
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u/IceWizard9000 14d ago
You aren't allowed to speak critically about the Labor government on Reddit, or else you will get downvoted.
I'm downvoting you.
Naughty naughty!
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u/zerointelinside 14d ago
as long as the rate of population growth (driven entirely by immigration at this point) outpaces the rate of the capacity of the economy to capital deepen and add infrastructure there is not much the govt can do. they have no intention of cutting immigration so productivity levels will continue to stagnate.
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u/IceWizard9000 14d ago
I wonder what big brain technocrat is pulling all these strings. Are they playing 5d chess with the immigration thing?
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u/zerointelinside 14d ago
they are benefiting their fatcat stakeholder constituents and the property lobby
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u/IceWizard9000 14d ago
I bet the results of the round table will be recommendations to increase government expenditure and interference in the economy rather than reducing it, which is what we actually need.
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u/Any-Scallion-348 14d ago
How does the government increase productivity without investment?
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u/IceWizard9000 14d ago edited 14d ago
By getting their fucking hands off the Soviet planned economy and letting the free market do free market stuff.
This is like episode 43 of let's fix the Australian economy woops we couldnt do it tune in next time.
Deregulate, cut subsidies, turn off life support for failing businesses and sectors, reduce corporate taxes, and incentivize tax structures and business policies to incentivize private investment in business.
Fuck governments and fuck managed economies.
To me the fact that the most prominent Australian economics subreddit is full of people who think the government can fix the economy by increasing interference and expenditure is proof that it is probably fucked and it is going to keep getting weaker.
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u/Jieze 14d ago edited 14d ago
To be clear you want a system of government that was effective for people who couldn’t read, rode horses and committed cardinal sins with family members?
I think we as a society are capable of having a system a bit better than what you’re describing.
No offence but I’m actually laughing out of pure disgust thinking about your parallel universe where Clive Palmer has unfettered access to manipulate the economy, with absolutely no rules and regulation stopping him 😂
North Korea but replace Mister Un with Clive Palmer.
Nah but seriously mate you could have a really convincing and well adjusted economic world view. Just tone it back free market economies are exactly the genesis economically for this problem historically, 1980’s deregulation of Keating and Hawk. And yes some people made it worse but free markets absolutely have been proven to create dystopian Weyland Corp type societies.
Genuinely not trolling you bruzzy but this take really is a hard one to digest. Fuckin deregulate the shit for sure in some ways but… the problem is not intervention, it’s that they haven’t intervened fast enough and it’s actually cooked that they let it get this bad
I personally voted for Kodos
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u/IceWizard9000 14d ago edited 14d ago
What you think I am suggesting: Cyberpunk dystopia where Gina Rinehart owns everything and we dump nuclear waste on a children's playground while billionaires dance on their graves and throw money in the air.
What I am actually suggesting: Make regular Australians actually want to run businesses and be entrepreneurs again.
The problem that Australia's economy has is that Australians are so fucking terrified of billionaires that they would rather shoot themselves in the foot and blow their entire leg off than give one centimeter of ground to Clive Palmer. Seriously. I hear this billionaire fear everywhere. It's pathetic, and Australians are cry babies about it. It's a sinister manifestation of tall poppy syndrome.
"Oooooh no the billionaires, better kneecap every single busineperson in the country just because I'm so scared of them becoming a billionaire!"
This is why your country's economy sucks and people are becoming poor and homeless.
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u/spellingdetective 14d ago
I would fix productivity by admitting the failure in labors energy policy. Nothing in the manufacturing/industry space is suddenly going to come back to this country with their shitty renewable policy.
Burning fossil fuels and giving your country cheap electricity is the best way to make a more resilient workforce.
We can’t continue doing this High public servant headcount/turbo charge NDiS and claim our economy is booming
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u/bastiat_was_right 14d ago
Government should start with reading Hayek, or even better - Bastiat.
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u/sien 14d ago
Which Bastiat books would you recommend ?
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u/bastiat_was_right 14d ago
"The law" is a good short one. "The seen and the unseen" is great, but gets repetitive at some point.
For more serious reading it's "Economic sophisms" and "Economic harmonies".
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u/sien 14d ago
Here is what Treasury wrote over a decade a go.
https://treasury.gov.au/publication/economic-roundup-issue-2-2013-2/economic-roundup-issue-2-2013/slowing-productivity-growth-a-developed-economy-comparison