Morrison has seen some feedback suggesting his election was such a shock, he had no real plans for the government outside tax cuts and infrastructure.
If any of the business leaders present at the Sydney dinner were of that view, he went to some lengths to persuade them otherwise.
It was a convincing performance.
Incoming BCA chief Tim Reed impressed with a much shorter opening speech outlining his agenda which starts with skills training, tax and regulation cuts, a plea to stop the policy division between big and small business, and restoring trust to the business sector.
The latter he noted was a case of doing “what we should not; not what we could do.”
The Westpac-Austrac saga set back that agenda.
Morrison was onto the skills push.
His list was familiar to anyone seeing the former advertising executive speak in recent months, but provided room for hope.
“Two-way trade”, which is both imports and exports, is now 70 per cent covered by trade agreements, up from 26 per cent in 2013.
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Trade figures are normally cited as exports or imports, but the Prime Minister combined the two, and noted when the EC and the UK are added, as much as 100 per cent of Australian exports will be covered by trade agreements.
That is an impressive sounding statistic even if the export mix is iron ore, iron ore, iron ore, education and tourism, and needs to be expanded.
Morrison talked up the digital economy with a 2030 target of Australian business being digitally enabled, including government services, to make it easier to deal with.
He has set up a digital technology taskforce to push the agenda.
Regulation will be cut on new projects to speed them up, and the 32 business registries will be cut to one.
Regulation around the food sector, particularly focussed on exports, will also be cut, which will be welcome changes.
Industrial relations changes are also on the agenda, as are productivity changes even if the latter are moving at a glacial pace.
The message then from the top: there is a big “to do” list in front of the government, on which it can be measured when the next election comes.
In business, there is a sense of long-needed stability on the political front and assuming it is real, this sets the stage for Morrison to turn the talk into action.
Maybe next year’s BCA lecture will be equally as lengthy, but listing more achievements than plans.
32 registries become one
The federal government has finally affirmed plans to combine its business registries under one banner within the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), which will cut paperwork for business.
In his speech to the BCA on Wednesday night Mr Morrison said 32 business registries will be cut to one.
The idea is to move all registries onto a new common platform, which will save time and also step up regulation of phoenix companies by enabling a director identification number.
This means the ATO can track who is a director of which company.
The move will take the registry office out of ASIC, freeing its time and enabling more efficient processing under the ATO.
This will save business from the need to file multiple forms when changing registration details.
The move was first flagged by former minister Kelly O’Dwyer two years ago but has now won prime ministerial endorsement.
It’s part of the government’s deregulation agenda.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison used his 40-minute speech to the BCA annual dinner on Wednesday night as a wake-up call to doubters about the extent of his policy agenda.