Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Calwell brings so much to this place, and we're really looking forward to working with him on the cost of living, on housing and on the economy more broadly. Housing approvals in our economy are up by almost 30 per cent since this time last year. That's a good reminder of the work we are doing and the progress we're making, but we acknowledge that we've still got a very long way to go together. We know it still takes longer to approve a house than to build one and that there's more to do to hit our ambitious housing target. That's why the announcements we made yesterday and today are so important, especially when it comes to approvals. I pay tribute to the housing minister and the environment minister for yesterday's announcement in particular.

We are blitzing the approvals backlog and we are building more homes, and there was very strong support for this urgent action at the Economic Reform Roundtable. It's a very good example of the consensus and the momentum that we were able to build there in really important areas. Housing was a key consideration, but it wasn't the only focus. More broadly, we know that the best way to grow living standards over time is to make our economy more productive and more resilient and our budget more sustainable. We also know that the worst decade for productivity growth in this country was the 2010s, under those opposite. And we know that weak productivity growth has been part of our economy for the last couple of decades, not just the last couple of years, and it's a challenge shared around the world. It will take time to turn it around.

The Economic Reform Roundtable was a really cherished opportunity to sharpen our focus, to share our ideas, to build some consensus and to build some much-needed dimension in our economy. Ten reform areas were agreed as priorities: (1) housing, as I said; (2) a single market in the federation; (3) simpler trade and tariffs; (4) better regulation; (5) faster approvals; (6) AI as a national priority; (7) attraction of investment; (8) skills; (9) tax; and (10) modernisation of government.

From these directions, we are already working up urgent actions, like those announced yesterday by my colleagues, and there is more to come. We have been making progress in our economy. We've seen that in the inflation data. We've seen it in interest rates coming down and real wages growing. We have an agenda. We're focused on delivering the agenda that we took to the election. But we know that the best way to work out the next steps in our economy and in our country is to do that in our usual considered, consultative and collaborative way, because we know that the best progress we can make, whether in housing or in the economy more broadly, is to make that progress together.

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