Packed government bench seeks an effective agenda

The optics of the first day of the 48th parliament are as extraordinary as the expectations are underwhelming. As 94 Labor MPs fill the government benches, spilling across to the opposition side of the chamber, where 43 shell-shocked Coalition MPs look for relevance, the Albanese government’s agenda needs to match the opportunity.

It currently includes cutting HECS debts by 20 per cent – a populist gift-horse to young voters who are privileged to chalk more of their university tuition fees up to taxpayers – and legislating to enshrine penalty rates, a hangover from decades ago before the 24/7 economy made weekend and night work the norm. Childcare reforms, while important, are part of the government’s essential responsibility.

If Labor, in the nation’s economic interest, is to find an agenda commensurate with the Hawke-Keating reforms that built a more competitive economy in the 1980s and early ’90s, when the Howard government took over the baton on industrial relations and the tax system, MPs will be looking to Jim Chalmers’ productivity roundtable.

The event goes to the heart of the government’s drive to reverse the productivity slump, currently at a 60-year low and down 1 per cent over the past year. The Treasurer, to his credit, wants frank and robust debate at the roundtable.

Some union officials are already pushing an inane agenda to abolish the Productivity Commission and introduce shorter working hours for the same pay. And business is cautious, understandably, after the experience of the 2022 Jobs and Skills Summit that turned out to be little more than an ambush to deliver the spoils of electoral victory to the union movement.

This time, business groups need to be well prepared, as the Minerals Council of Australia is demonstrating. In line with Dr Chalmers’ expectations, mining companies, which have delivered more than half the economy’s productivity gains over the past decade and produce 10 per cent of GDP, want to better harness AI to deliver further gains.

Yet as Matthew Cranston and Greg Brown report, the council is concerned about how much power Labor will give unions in blocking billions of dollars worth of investment in AI out of fear that jobs would be lost. Minerals Council chief Tania Constable says unions should not be given the power to block or veto innovation, which would further erode Australia’s competitiveness and take us backward.

“Technology decisions within companies should be driven by expertise and innovation, not union officials,” Ms Constable told The Australian. “Mining sits at the heart of productivity growth, through its track record in deploying new technologies and AI.’’

Her priorities fit Dr Chalmers’ prerequisites for ideas to be brought to the roundtable. These should be in the national interest, budget-neutral but preferably budget-positive (which they would be if mining company profits rose), and specific and practical, he said in June.

The ACTU is seeking to use the “risk’’ of AI to undo existing consultation obligations under the Fair Work Act. Current rules require employers to consult with affected employees after a “definite decision’’ has been made to introduce a “major workplace change’’ likely to have a “significant effect” on employees.

The new law would allow unions to be consulted before any decision is made to introduce new technology. Such a significant issue needs to be resolved, clearing the way for companies to take advantage of AI to improve productivity.

That policy direction also fits Dr Chalmers’ recent embrace of supply-side economics, as Cranston wrote on Saturday – boosting growth by increasing supply of goods and services through tax cuts, deregulation, and incentives for production and investment. After much neo-Keynesian government intervention, redistribution and regula­tion in Labor’s first term, some supply-side thinking at the roundtable would enhance our economic future.