This Month
CEOs reveal how to fix the productivity problem
Business reckons it’s ready to invest to help bolster living standards for all Australians. It just needs some policy help.
- Updated
- James Thomson and Anthony Macdonald
More skilled migration, less red tape to kickstart economy: CEOs
The government needs to stimulate sagging productivity growth if Australia is to prosper, business warns.
- Anthony Macdonald and James Thomson
December 2024
- Exclusive
- Chanticleer CEO poll
‘Australia is falling behind’: 55 CEOs demand election action
Top chief executives say the next federal government must make the nation’s crippling regulatory burden and housing supply top priorities.
- Updated
- James Thomson and Anthony Macdonald
- Opinion
- Chanticleer CEO poll
CEOs reveal their asks for the coming election
With a federal vote due by mid-May at the latest, Australian business leaders highlight what they think the government and opposition should focus on to win.
- James Thomson and Anthony Macdonald
November 2024
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Westpac’s departing King sees two pain points for Australia
Peter King leaves having steered Westpac through an impressive turnaround. But he sees two problems Australia needs to solve.
- James Thomson
October 2024
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
‘It comes down to housing all the time’: NAB chief’s growth warning
The bank’s boss, Andrew Irvine, says access to talent is the biggest hurdle for SME growth. But our housing crisis isn’t helping.
- James Thomson
June 2024
ASIC trains its sights on private equity
The regulator is trying to work out what’s caused the slump in public listings, and whether this has triggered problems that ASIC needs to tackle.
- Hans van Leeuwen
April 2024
Alcoa vows to ‘listen better’ as it closes in on Alumina
Alcoa boss Bill Oplinger says permitting delays in Western Australia showed the US company needed to listen better, as he prepares to spend $4.6 billion buying more Australian assets.
- Peter Ker
March 2024
Rinehart boss blasts Labor’s ‘nature-positive’ agenda
Gina Rinehart’s business empire has hit out over what it argues are flawed plans to rewrite national environmental laws.
- Brad Thompson
Chalmers pushes planning scheme amid torrent of new banking rules
The treasurer said the so-called regulatory grid would force regulators to consider the burden of changes on lenders, especially smaller and regional groups.
- James Eyers
- Opinion
- Business Summit
Labor is modernising the economy
The Albanese government will make our economy more productive by easing compliance costs on business where we can, we will abolish hundreds of nuisance tariffs.
- Jim Chalmers
Forrests lash Europe’s labour law climbdown
Germany and Italy kiboshed an EU law that would compel firms to weed out forced labour in their supply chains. The Forrests fear a ripple effect in Australia.
- Hans van Leeuwen
September 2023
Mental health compo drives $2.5bn hit to NSW Budget
Rising costs and liabilities in the government’s insurance schemes will lengthen the odds of a surplus in coming years.
- Samantha Hutchinson
The UK answer to the banks’ regulation strangulation problem
Peter King and Anna Bligh met Jim Chalmers to call for a high-level planning scheme to force legislators and regulators to sequence compliance demands.
- James Eyers
August 2023
Slash red tape, boost migration to beat growth slump: CEOs
Business leaders say the government has the levers to lift productivity and economic growth, which the government expects to slump to a post-World War II low.
- Michael Read
June 2023
Banks urge Canberra to copy UK playbook on easing red tape
UK regulators have to sit round a table twice a year and ensure their rule-making isn’t overloading the sector. The Albanese government has been asked to import the idea.
- Hans van Leeuwen
February 2023
- Opinion
- Immigration
Migration is Australia’s ‘special sauce’. But the system is broken
Our large, unstrategic, uncapped temporary program has become the centrepiece of our migration system – and its biggest source of problems.
- Clare O'Neil
- Opinion
- Letters to the Editor
Letters: Hostility to mining, or to coal?
All mining isn’t coal mining; fossil fuel ban; uninterrupted power supply; population as a growth strategy; wrong anti-inflation levers; red tape; digital health records; Commonwealth Bank.
October 2022
British PM sets out a classic Thatcherite playbook
The embattled Liz Truss didn’t reveal any policies, but forcefully laid out her values: cut red tape, put tax money back in people’s pockets, shrink the state.
- Hans van Leeuwen
July 2022
Budget cuts needed after $1b blowout in business registry revealed
Labor will need to make additional budget cuts after uncovering a $1 billion blowout in the Coalition’s signature program to consolidate business registries.
- Michael Read