Business leaders in their own words on policy

It's been another dramatic and bruising year in politics, capped off by Scott Morrison's miracle election victory. But Australia's top chief executives remain concerned at the lack of policy to stimulate growth, telling The Australian Financial Review's annual Chanticleer CEO poll they want action on infrastructure, tax and business investment.

Q: What policies or reforms should the government prioritise to stimulate growth?

Marnie Baker, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank

Red tape and regulation mean that businesses are forced to hire people that cost them money, rather than make them money, which means less to invest in growing their businesses.

David Attenborough, Tabcorp

Government needs to focus on encouraging businesses to invest and grow through tax reform and effective deregulation. The aim should be to reduce bureaucracy, encourage research and development, and support investment in skills and training.

Catherine Tanna, EnergyAustralia

There’s a strong argument that the experience of the past few years in energy shows that stable policy matters more than reforming policy. In Australia, and internationally, we’re seeing more subjective decision-making and more power concentrated in the hands of politicians, and a few politicians at that.

Pat Regan, QBE

I would like to see more governments around the world doing more on the fiscal side, particularly in parts of the economy where we need to be creating jobs and opportunities for young people. That includes here in Australia where, for example, I think we have a real opportunity to develop an innovation and technology hub that with the right investment and incentives could eventually compete with places like Silicon Valley or Tel Aviv.

Alison Watkins, Coca-Cola Amatil

We do need to face the reality that Australia’s business tax rates are high compared to the OECD average and most trading partners. Our 30 per cent rate was set in 2006 and is out of step with an Asia-Pacific average of 21 per cent. It’s made worse by the current two-tier system which creates a tax cliff between small and large businesses. We need to lower the rate progressively to 25 per cent for all companies.

Andy Penn, Telstra

There is a lot we need to get right in the policy space and broadly the focus has to be on policies that are pro-investment, pro-innovation and pro-customer. Pro-investment, because business needs an incentive to invest, including a reasonable return on that investment. That is not always the case, including in the telco sector. Pro-innovation, because Australia’s future will be built on innovation. And pro-customer and particularly pro-inclusion because too many people, particularly those living in regional areas or on low incomes, are missing out on the opportunities of the digital age.

Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, Mirvac

The recent announcement by the federal government to bring forward spending on infrastructure projects around the country is a good step to help boost the economy and transform our rapidly growing cities. Of course, most infrastructure is delivered by state governments, so greater co-operation between all levels of government to plan and prioritise our cities and then agree a commitment to funding is welcome.

Peter Coleman, Woodside

An investment allowance has been used successfully in the past to enhance economic growth and is worth considering now. In industrial relations, we are keen to see life-of-project agreements for greenfields projects that improve the chances of a project finishing on schedule and on budget. That, in turn, improves the chances of the investment being made in the first place.

Peter Harmer, IAG

The future of work. The changing nature of work is a broad economic and social phenomenon affecting governments, companies and communities. The conversation needs to shift from robots taking jobs, to how we can ensure Australians have the right skills for the future, as well as the appropriate level of protections and entitlements.

Jean-Sebastien Jacques, Rio Tinto

Clearly, energy policy needs to be resolved so that Australia, as an energy-rich country, has the affordable, secure and flexible supply it needs. We have gone from having some of the most competitively priced energy to nearly the most expensive in the developed world.

Shemara Wikramanayake, Macquarie Group

Governments face a variety of challenges around the world and stimulating growth is common to most. If the government were minded to use fiscal stimulus, infrastructure investment has historically driven growth and job creation. We would also be supportive of the government continuing to work with the Productivity Commission on a number of micro-economic reform measures.

Matt Comyn, Commonwealth Bank

Australia needs income growth to stimulate the economy. We saw some positive impact from the government’s one-off tax refunds earlier this year, and there may be an opportunity to bring forward planned future tax cuts to help increase disposable income for households on a persistent basis. There are also opportunities to bring forward infrastructure investment and drive structural reform aimed at driving productivity – areas that both federal and state governments are working on. The other big opportunity is taking steps to further encourage small and medium businesses to invest, innovate and grow. This is particularly important given the critical role that small and medium-sized businesses play in driving economic growth.

Q: What big opportunity did Australia fail to seize in the past decade?

Andrew Bassat, Seek

Comparing 10 years ago to now, the really big businesses on the ASX are still relatively similar. When you look at the China or US exchanges, they have seen the emergence of really big tech businesses which are huge employers and on the right side of long-term structural trends. Hopefully, it is not too late for Australia to seed the next generation of high-growth global tech businesses.

Richard White, WiseTech Global

Making Australia a global technology hub. The war for talent is our ever-present battleground and we urgently need to focus on technology occupations to prepare workforces for the new tech-enabled and tech-dominated economies. We need people coming out of high school and university to have much higher levels of ambition in terms of education.

Richard Vincent, Australian Pharmaceutical Industries

As a country I think we failed to get our innovation policy settings right. Our innovation success stories are few and far between. I’ve seen statistics that show that our spending on R&D has fallen since the GFC to below 1 per cent of GDP. At the same time, the likes of the US, Singapore, Korea, Germany and Israel range between 2 per cent and 4 per cent of GDP.

Mark Steinert, Stockland

To fully commercialise some of the great innovation which our universities, CSIRO and business have created.

Peter Coleman, Woodside

With the benefit of hindsight, we should have put a market-based price on carbon a decade ago. We all hold some responsibility for this failure – and that includes industry, as well as political parties from right across the Parliament.

Elizabeth Gaines, Fortescue Metals Group

Australia has the potential to be a big player in the new and renewable energy space, and a clear and consistent national policy framework - which we have lacked over the last decade - is an important foundation. Our focus at Fortescue is on practical initiatives to reduce our emissions and cost of energy. We are working with CSIRO to explore opportunities with hydrogen and recently announced the Chichester Solar Gas Project, which will see up to 100 per cent of daytime stationary energy requirements at our Chichester Hub iron ore operations powered by renewable energy.

Rob Wheals, APA Group

Australia’s inability to reach a bi-partisan agreement on a national energy and climate policy is the most profound missed opportunity in the last 10 years.

Alan Joyce, Qantas

Big reform is hard, but I worry that quite a few ideas wind up in the ''too hard'' basket. Things like significant tax and IR changes, or energy policy. The last major tax reform in Australia was the GST almost 20 years ago. Our economy has changed a lot since then and yet the system is largely the same. We’re not keeping pace with the rest of the world in this space.

Matt Comyn, Commonwealth Bank

I think we have missed an opportunity to drive some of the big, difficult structural reforms that will really set the country up well for the decades ahead. When I compare the reform agenda of the past decade to the 80s or 90s or early 2000s, structural reform feels like it has been harder for a range of reasons. Given the pace of change, a broader reform agenda will be required again in the future. This will require business and community to engage and work through the issues, and it will at times require trade-offs and choices to be made.