Kickstarting NSW: Our road to recovery
Scott Morrison has vowed to crank economic expansion and job creation to the max through an attack on taxes, workplace laws and government regulations no longer “fit for purpose”.
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Scott Morrison has vowed to crank economic expansion and job creation to the max through an attack on taxes, workplace laws and government regulations no longer “fit for purpose”.
The PM’s commitment came as detailed modelling revealed GDP losses caused by the coronavirus crisis could be recouped in just five years if Australia “goes for growth”.
Mr Morrison laid out his vision for the nation’s post-virus recovery as part of The Daily Telegraph’s Kickstart NSW campaign, which begins on Wednesday in a co-ordinated multi-industry push to get our state back on the fast-track to prosperity.
Writing exclusively for The Telegraph, the PM said “we need to look at policy settings across all areas and ask a simple question: Are they fit-for-purpose to create jobs and fire economic growth?”
His sentiments were echoed by new PwC research showing that by embracing reforms such as smarter regulation and more efficient taxation — plus exploiting global demand for our goods — by 2025 Australia’s GDP can be the same as what it would have been without COVID-19. “We as a nation can choose to reboot Australia to drive prosperity for all,” report lead author and PwC partner Jeremy Thorpe said.
By growing its way to recovery, the country can get in a position to limit the human and economic damage of future crises, Mr Thorpe said.
The damage from this crisis can be limited through a speedy emergence from restrictions, new Ernst & Young analysis shows.
The difference between a V-shaped bounce back and slower U-shaped recovery will be tens of billions of dollars for NSW in 2020 alone, EY found.
It urged the removal of domestic travel restrictions, labelling them one of the major constraints on economic activity.
The impact was far greater than that caused by the international border closure.
The body representing employers, the Australian Industry Group, also said interstate barriers had to fall.
Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said border restrictions within Australia were “an unnecessary restraint on trade and people movement.”
Business leader and Western Sydney Giants chairman Tony Shepherd said companies should not wait for official easing of restrictions and should instead develop their own return plans and get them approved by authorities, as the NRL and AFL had.
“Waiting too long will wreak further havoc on our economy and cause enormous financial and emotional distress to millions of hardworking Australians,” he said.
“The longer the shutdown goes the deeper the economic and social impact and the longer it will take to recover.”
Ai Group’s Mr Willox said rebuilding confidence was critical to kickstarting NSW.
CommSec chief economist Craig James said there were positive “green shoots” to build on with consumer sentiment improving for seven straight weeks — a “remarkable” turnaround.
THE KICKSTART WISHLIST
Mr James said the reasons for the ongoing improvement were that the number of new COVID-19 cases had been contained, allowing some reopening of the economy, plus “all levels of government in Australia have provided good co-operative leadership”.
Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the country couldn’t afford to waste “the unprecedented level of co-operation achieved to date.”
“Businesses are ready to work with governments, unions, employees and suppliers to get to work on the reform Australians desperately need,” she said.
Restricting immigration –— as occurred following the 1991 recession — would be a mistake, PwC said, given its role in growth in “our consumption-oriented sectors and real estate markets”.
Mr Morrison said it was vital to keep building confidence and momentum in our economy: “I am conscious of the size of the challenged. This is the biggest economic shock in Australian history — $50 billion lost to our economy in just over three months.
“But looking to the future, I would rather be in Australia than anywhere else in the world.”
Originally published as Kickstarting NSW: Our road to recovery
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