Policy bravery needed to keep building The List

The List of Australia’s Richest 250 people is more than a celebration of wealth. It is a snapshot of the transformation in work and enterprise that is shaping the future fortunes of the nation. This year’s List underscores the traditional strengths of mining and manufacturing, and shows how technology companies are building a strong and welcome presence that holds great promise for the nation’s economic future. Old industries are adapting to changing times and a new generation of business leaders is coming through with fresh ideas and ways to get things done. The List editor John Stensholt calls the past 12 months the story of the three Ps: the Pilbara, pizza boxes and personal computers. Booming prices of iron ore from Western Australia’s Pilbara region have propelled West Australian magnate Gina Rinehart to the top of the list and fellow miner Andrew Forrest to second place from where he can think big about shaping the low-emissions industries of tomorrow. Ms Rinehart’s estimated fortune is $36.28bn from her private mining venture, Hancock Prospecting. Mr Forrest’s wealth surged more than $16bn to $29.61bn. Record home deliveries of everything from pizzas to luxury goods illustrate the power of the COVID-19-inspired e-commerce boom that exploded when the public was locked down and forced to shop from home. It’s fair to say the Pratt family’s Visy cardboard box and packing empire has had a productive pandemic. Anthony Pratt’s fortune has grown to $21.27bn, up from $16.95bn last year, but he still slipped from first place to fifth on The List. Meanwhile, computer and technology companies have done well from a spike in demand for software and computer components as the work-from-home phenomenon became mainstream.

The building strength of Australia’s global-scale technology companies is a welcome sign for the future. Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar took out third and fourth positions on The List. In The List: Australia’s Richest 250 magazine on Saturday, Mr Farquhar outlines how the focus of the domestic technology sector is to build a depth of opportunity, as well as to promote social causes and support emerging talent. Mr Farquhar says he likes to measure his impact by the entrepreneurs who leave Atlassian to start new ventures. This has been a hallmark of successful technology companies globally where innovation is rewarded and risk-taking encouraged. Elon Musk can trace his roots to PayPal. Multiple fast-growth Australian technology start-ups have already sprung from Atlassian’s ranks. The company is investing heavily in a high-technology precinct in Sydney to generate a critical mass to attract talent and deliver greater employee opportunity. Mr Farquhar says success for him would be for Atlassian to be the 10th-biggest tech company in Australia, not the biggest.

Given events in Canberra this week, the big question is whether or not Australia’s political class is similarly up to the challenge. As Paul Kelly writes in Inquirer, after Australia’s brilliant performance on the pandemic and economic recovery, the parliament has voted to keep an IR system that means lower wages, less enterprise, a bargaining system that cannot function properly, and for 1970s nostalgia. Abandoning modest reforms in IR has confirmed the lack of parliamentary courage that is beset by a toxic culture for national interest lawmaking. Kelly says the decision is anti-worker. It will harm wages, harm bargaining and it makes a mockery of a nation pretending to be committed to innovation, the digital economy and new enterprise investment. From an omnibus bill of IR reforms, only provisions to allow casual workers to ask to become permanent made it through. There were important protections for employers to safeguard them from potential double-dip claims for entitlements from employees who had already been paid a casual loading. But a bigger picture agenda to restart enterprise bargaining was dropped, along with measures to make underpayment of wages a criminal offence. The fact Labor could not support reforms clearly aimed at protecting workers’ entitlements demonstrates the extent to which partisan politics is now hostile to the public interest.

Ironically, the backdown on IR came as confirmation arrived that bold moves taken by the Morrison government to protect the economy against the pandemic had worked. Employment bounced back strongly in February, with more jobs now than before the pandemic hit. The unemployment rate dropped from 6.3 per cent to 5.8 per cent in February, well below even the most optimistic forecasts. The challenge is to build on that success. The aim must be to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit that has seen a generation of young business leaders join The List of Australia’s wealthy elite quicker than almost anyone in history.

This year’s List features 14 of the most successful young names in business worth $18.5bn between them. Ten have made their fortune from technology. Sustaining this good fortune will depend on providing the right settings to allow a new generation of talent to keep forcing its way onto The List. Policy reforms that can be wrung from the pandemic now will set the speed limit for the economy for the next 10 years.