Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor government's touted productivity roundtable, or economic roundtable—whatever it was eventually called—seemed like a bit of a stunt to create the impression that one of the critical challenges faced by Australia, our fall in productivity, is in fact actually being addressed. Many of us gave it the benefit of the doubt, because you have to discuss these issues, and businesses having dialogue with our leaders is a good thing. But here's the problem. Labor, under this prime minister and this treasurer, is fundamentally an antiproductivity government. It is obsessed with government-directed wealth redistribution, crony capitalism and the welfare state. It is dictated to by the unions, and these dictations find their way into legislation, and that legislation makes us less competitive and less productive. Energy policy was barely discussed at the roundtable, as though everyone accepts that the transition is going swimmingly and that cheap and affordable power will just continue as we move from generation techniques such as coal and gas, which are 24/7, to an intermittent supply.

Anyone who is seriously assessing the grid and looking at the successes and failures of other nations in their energy transitions would see the flaws in this approach. This particular energy transition is one of the biggest economic gambles Australia has ever faced. The probability and the consequences of getting it wrong are too horrific to contemplate. I worry that government ministers seem to put the viability and competitiveness of businesses, particularly small business, last on their list of priorities when drafting legislation. This is evident in the regrettable changes to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and the new industrial laws, which have hit small businesses hard with a mountain of regulation.

In addition, Labor is on a spending spree, with diminishing economic activity to pay back the debt into the future. According to data published by the Centre for Independent Studies in July this year, more than half of Australian voters rely on government for their main income, through public sector wages, welfare payments or subsidies. The Institute of Public Affairs found that, between August 2022 and August 2024, 82 per cent of new persons were employed in the public service. Now, that's not to say that people who work in the public sector in many cases don't provide a valuable service. But an economy based on taxpayer funded jobs is a house of cards. Tax was discussed, but I don't see any real appetite for reform. And efforts by the previous coalition government to address the productivity-killing phenomenon of bracket creep were reversed by Labor.

So, what does this all mean? Well, it appears that we're on a pathway to managed decline, and that means a decline in our living standards and opportunities for our next generation, and we need a bold government to address these factors in a serious way.

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