Axe the red tape: Big business presses for Trump-like attack on regulation

“I am consistently told that Australia’s regulatory settings are uncompetitive and are causing us to lose out on the critical investment needed to drive future prosperity – fixing this has to be a national priority.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has appointed Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as a shadow minister for government efficiency, part of a broader policy agenda to rein in government spending. At the weekend, Dutton again signalled, if elected, he planned a reduction of the total public service workforce.
The Business Council proposal goes further, arguing for a national cabinet taskforce created to identify duplications and inefficiencies between state and federal governments.
It states that reforms across aged and primary care, disability and mental health and for veterans all offered scope for better services and reduced costs.
Apart from cutting regulation, the council is pressing for the company tax rate to be reduced to 25 per cent, the introduction of investment allowances for all businesses and a possible increase to the GST.
In a bid to help businesses develop their domestic operations rather than shift them overseas, the council argues firms should be provided government assistance at “each stage of the commercialisation” process, from early-stage research to manufacturing.
One area in which the council is pressing for broader reform is industrial relations, effectively calling for abolition of the government’s string of changes that included the definition of casual employment and use of labour-hire firms.
A review of the government’s IR changes suggest real wages are still short of their mid-2012 levels despite an increase in productivity.Credit: Wayne Taylor
It also believes enterprise bargaining should start only where most staff support the move or where an employer agrees and that the better-off overall test for deals should include non-monetary benefits.
But the draft review of the government’s IR changes, released on Monday, suggests the changes have not led to a decline in productivity while helping to lift real wages.
The review, by industrial relations expert Mark Bray and economist Alison Preston, found that despite real wages increasing in 2024, they remained 2 per cent below their level in mid-2012. Labour productivity, despite recent falls, was still “well above” that June 2012 point.
“Whether real wages continue to rise and the gap reduces remains to be seen. But the early signs are positive: collective bargaining is increasing, especially the coverage of collective agreements, and wages (and other indicators workers’ economic circumstances) have started to improve,” it found.
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The Business Council is pressing for the return of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, a policy supported by the Coalition. The government abolished the ABCC, transferring its powers to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO).
The review found the FWO could address the still “substantial ongoing issues” within the construction sector being caused by both unions and employers.
ACTU national secretary Sally McManus seized on the report, saying it showed the government’s IR changes had helped working people.
“The independent review shows that these reforms greatly contributed to getting wages moving. Imagine life for working people if they had to go through a period of high inflation, high interest rates and no real wage growth,” she said.
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