Westpac’s Brian Hartzer set for a positive turn as parliamentary grilling looms

Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer will set out a positive economic message when he addresses an Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Melbourne tomorrow. (James Croucher)

An upbeat Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer will pierce the global economic gloom when he addresses about 600 people tomorrow at an Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Melbourne.

Hartzer reckons the outlook for the domestic economy is improving as the dollar settles at a more competitive level, shipments of resources trend higher and the transition to a more services-based economy accelerates.

In the last five years alone, the services sector has created about 750,000 jobs.

Hartzer sees cause for optimism in the same things that are causing widespread community concern, such as the ageing population, the rapid technological change sweeping through workplaces and the shift in economic power to China.

It doesn’t help the national mood when people feel insecure about their jobs, the share market is stuck in a holding pattern, and household income expands at a much slower clip.

The Westpac chief, however, will present the flip side of the story.

In an echo of Malcolm Turnbull’s pitch on becoming Prime Minister, he will tell his AICC audience that disruption creates opportunity.

Hartzer will say that local businesses are well-placed to satisfy demand for services from the nation’s emerging economic hot spots.

The message will be that disruption lifts demand as well as enhancing productivity.

Of course, it’s part of a bank chief’s job to focus on the upside rather than dwell on the downside.

Even so, Australia’s extraordinary record of 25 years of uninterrupted growth, with the economy still chugging along at 3.3 per cent growth for the year to June, tends to get lost in all the white noise about our perceived shortcomings.

The performance is even more meritorious when compared to the rest of the world.

The Bank of Canada recently said it had over-estimated global growth by an average of half a percentage point in each of the past four years, with consensus private sector forecasts missing the mark by even more.

The foregone output is measured in hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

For Hartzer, bridging the growth gap is not about central banks pumping more money into the system — the solution lies in stoking demand, not supply.

The Westpac boss has more than the nation’s economic pulse on his mind.

Early next month, the House Economics Committee will grill the major-bank chiefs for the first time as part of the PM’s bid to neutralise the Labor Party’s popular call for a bank royal commission.

These days, senior bankers can’t speak publicly without a reference to the conduct issues plaguing the industry.

Expect Hartzer to outline Westpac’s broad positioning.

Richard Gluyas’ next Four Pillars column will appear in Thursday’s paper