"Australia's long-term productivity challenges have been laid bare in recent years, with anaemic growth, difficult business conditions and a falling investment economy, so we welcome Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's promise today to be brave with reform," said Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Australian Industry Group.
"The evidence is clear on private sector weakness – around four in five of the jobs created last year were in government-supported industries.
"The Prime Minister rightly recognises that business needs to resume its rightful place as the engine of growth, if Australia is to realise its ambitions for a strong, productive and diversified economy.
"Unnecessary and/or outdated regulations, with inchoate overlaps between state and federal rules, are a growing headache for business and a prime source of our productivity woes, so his focus on developing fit-for-purpose regulation is also welcome.
"It is rare for a political leader to recognise that governments sometimes need to do less to achieve more, so we commend the Prime Minister for setting a reform direction which is long overdue.
"The agenda for the August Roundtable is, by necessity and urgency, very broad. Technology, skills, tax, energy, trade, investment and housing could each fill a summit of their own. It needs to be a long and productive conversation on reform as it has been 25 years since we last undertook it.
"This must therefore be the start of a long conversation – strong leadership will be needed in the coming months and years to see the agenda delivered.
"We need to restart the private sector engine of growth, and better regulation has a critical role to play.
"Australian Industry Group looks forward to representing business and working with the Government to realise this ambition before, during and after the August Roundtable," Mr Willox said.
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