Time to cut red and green tape to save economy

Now is not the time for the faint-hearted or weak, whether it be quarantining your family or protecting your company, business or simply your job. Bold, decisive leadership is not only required but mandatory, writes Peter Gleeson.

DESPERATE times call for desperate measures and we are indeed in uncharted waters as the coronavirus kills people and ruins the global economy.

Now is not the time for the faint-hearted or weak, whether it be quarantining your family from the ravages of the virus or protecting your company, business or simply your job.

Bold, decisive leadership is not only required but mandatory. When it comes to conventional policy, at all levels of government, we need to throw the rule book out. We need to approve private investment and trust people to do the right thing.

This is real. This virus kills and unless we get it under control it has the potential to not only wipe out a lot of people, but torpedo wealth. The middle class will be no more.

We can’t die wondering. To ensure we don’t finish up in a 1929-style Depression, Federal, State and local government needs to be bold, creative and innovative in their decision-making, starting today.

Big government infrastructure projects must be fast-tracked to keep people in jobs. There is only a certain amount to be gained from the generous Government stimulus packages. They are designed to protect businesses through the tough times, a bridge to ensure they come out of this nightmare with the capacity to continue.

Serious question marks will be placed on thousands of small businesses in coming days, weeks and months. Resilience is required. There are obvious parallels with the challenges that occurred during wartime as the Government tries to keep society functioning.

Within that context, and in the spirit of taking big and bold decisions to keep the economy afloat, it’s time for a fundamental change to the way we approve development.

There are hundreds of projects in Australia right now that are caught up in the green and red tape of bureaucracy. They are mired in red and green bureaucracy, either to keep some fat cat in a job or for political reasons.

We don’t have the luxury right now to be playing politics on development. We can’t be refusing cashed-up developers the opportunity to create jobs and sustainable long-term prosperity because some Greens or Labor hack are anti-development.

For example, why should a development company like the Walker Corporation be stopped from spending $2 billion on a massive project on Brisbane’s bayside because a group of local greenies don’t want it in their backyard? That project has been on the Redlands council books since 2007.

Authorities should stop pandering to the interests of minority groups who put a spanner in the works of job-creating developments.

If we don’t approve major developments right now in this country, in six months time the developers may not be there to fund projects. Local, state and federal Government should form a taskforce with the explicit aim of going through every medium to large project to streamline the process to get them approved. Some have battled environmental and planning road blocks for years, frustrating cashed-up developers ready to proceed.

That doesn’t mean giving developers the green light to ride roughshod over conservation and environmental protocols. If they break the law during construction, whack them with multi-million dollar fines. But we need to trust them to get on with the job. The game has changed.

Let’s approve these projects now and get the ball rolling. Most developers want to do the right thing by the environment because it adds value to their project. Doing it the way we have always done it – forcing developers to go through an antiquated, protracted and costly Environmental Impact Assessment – is not the way to go forward in the New Coronavirus World.

There are dozens of developers in Australia with the cash to begin projects now and help us stave off double digit unemployment in coming months.

It could provide an immediate $50 billion stimulus to the economy and keep tens of thousands of tradies working.

Deloittes boss Richard Deutsch appeared on my Sky News-Win show a few days ago and I asked him what was the most important thing for companies and business leaders as they ride out this unprecedented health and fiscal crisis.

“Keep the mechanics of your company going … you have to keep the business afloat and that means doing everything possible to keep the fundamentals going,’’ Deutsch, who has 11,000 staff, said.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Every tier of government needs to take the hand brake off development projects. Now is the time to show some ticker and throw convention out the window.

The country’s future depends on it.