Libs put big business in the pot with big government

Peter Dutton has read the room and staked his party’s future on the support of small business and aspirational voters in the outer suburbs and regional centres. In doing so he has stuck firm to the Liberal Party’s core ideological belief in the power of the individual over the desires of big government. He has added to that the self-interest of big business, which in recent years has shied away from taking a stand on big reform issues in favour of a more collegiate view of how it should conduct its affairs.

Gone are the reform warriors such as Arvi Parbo, Hugh Morgan and Chris Corrigan who were prepared to stand firm to help former Liberal governments transform mine sites and the waterfront in pursuit of a more productive economy for everyone. Big business in the new era has been captured by the demands of social and environmental agendas fought through social media and by activist investors.

Business Council of Australia president Tim Reed articulated the approach of big business in a speech to his organisation’s annual general meeting in 2020. He said the BCA existed “to ensure Australia is economically strong to support a fair, free and inclusive society for all Australians”. Scott Morrison lamented the lack of courage displayed by big business to champion reform. Mr Dutton highlighted the increasing disconnect between the Liberal Party and big business on Monday: “I think the Liberal Party in recent years has become quite estranged from big business and I want to focus on small business, I want that to be the focus of our policies,” Mr Dutton said.

With Labor in office and the Coalition in the wilderness, don’t expect big business to shed too many tears over that. But Mr Dutton is correct to advocate that small business and independent workers in the suburbs and regional areas have a right to expect the same sort of “fair, free and inclusive” treatment as everybody else.

Big business groups are well suited to engagement with Anthony Albanese’s vision of a grand compact between government, business and trade unions in the mould of the Hawke government’s Prices and Incomes Accord. The low-emissions transition in the energy sector is an area that, if handled badly, the big end of town no doubt will act to secure for itself at the expense of the less politically engaged. With energy prices soaring and the nation’s biggest electricity company, AGL, in turmoil there are signs already that big industry will look to government to shield it. Having championed a maximalist position on climate, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said on Tuesday that new energy options were hard to accelerate amid global supply chain woes, skills constraints and unease from communities around energy mega-projects.

Mr Dutton has declared the Albanese government not up to the task, arguing “electricity prices under Labor will go up” and that the Prime Minister will lead a “bad government” incapable of ­fiscal repair. Mr Dutton says he will support policies that are not going to turn lights off in small businesses or send families broke because they cannot afford Labor’s power bill. “I want to support domestic manufacturing, I want to make sure that we can provide support to those industries so we don’t see more jobs go offshore,” he said.

In contrast, the BCA has given Labor cover for its climate change policy that will require 82 per cent of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030, and for a cap-and-trade carbon market to be established for the biggest emitters. Big business, capital markets, organised labour, union-backed superannuation funds, executive government, single-issue independents and a well-organised protest movement are inside the tent on a grand reform agenda. Mr Dutton has given himself the lonely hand of trying to keep them honest for those who risk being left behind.