Abundance of red tape and less tax chat on Jim Chalmers’ roundtable agenda

Jim Chalmers has abandoned major tax reform for his economic roundtable, instead focusing on deregulation and housing productivity amid rising business sector anxiety.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Jim Chalmers is shifting the goalposts on his economic reform roundtable to focus outcomes on deregulation, cutting red tape and housing productivity – rather than major tax reform or reining in record government spending.

Ahead of the Treasurer meeting the Business Council of Australia and other top chief executives this week, Anthony ­Albanese and Dr Chalmers are lowering expectations of significant reforms across a range of tax and economic policy issues.

Drawing inspiration from the book Abundance, penned by progressive liberals working at The New York Times and The Atlantic, Dr Chalmers will seek consensus from business, union and community leaders on deregulation, productivity and lifting housing activity.

The move away from more ambitious proposals to turbocharge Australia’s sluggish economy comes amid rising anxiety in private-sector ranks about a unions ambush and the government using business leaders as cover to pursue tax crackdowns on employers and property investors.

Despite the hype fuelled by the government over the potential for a contest of ideas at the three-day roundtable hosted by Dr Chalmers at Parliament House from ­August 19 to 21, The Australian understands there will not be a shared communique at the end of the summit suggesting unanimous agreement on contentious proposals. Instead, Dr Chalmers is expected to provide a wrap-up of the roundtable, and mention a handful of specific changes he will be tasked with implementing.

Dr Chalmers, who will have met 75 chief executives and senior industry representatives before the roundtable, is expected to ­elevate the focus on what Labor describes as “better regulation” to ramp up productivity and speed-up housing approvals.

The Australian understands Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson, who will not publicly release the 900 roundtable submissions her department has received, has been involved in 30 to 40 hours of discussions with Dr Chalmers about proposals put forward.

On the back of those discussions, the government has ­decided that deregulation and speeding up approvals across all tiers of government will now be the roundtable’s central plank.

The Treasurer, who does not believe all regulation is negative, is recalibrating the summit away from tax reform amid tax policy clashes between unions, business and the Productivity Commission.

The return to prioritising productivity follows the Prime Minister initially referring to the post-election gathering as the “productivity roundtable” before Dr Chalmers dubbed it the “economic reform roundtable”.

Mr Albanese, who shut down Dr Chalmers’ signalling that GST changes could be on the table for discussion, said on Monday: “This is a roundtable … just that … it is not more than that, it’s not a replacement of the cabinet.”

In June, Dr Chalmers said he was open to most ideas on tax at the roundtable, including the GST.

“I suspect the states will have a view about the GST,” he said. “It’s not a view that I’ve been attracted to historically, but I’m going to try not to get in the process of shooting ideas between now and the roundtable.”

The roundtable, to be officially launched by Mr Albanese, will focus on “resilience” on day one, “productivity” on day two and “budget sustainability” on day three. Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock, Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood and Ms Wilkinson will deliver presentations ahead of formal discussions on each day.

Ms Wilkinson will outline some of the big spending areas in a budget Dr Chalmers has described as unsustainable. She will reinforce the Treasurer’s criteria that any reforms need to be ­budget-neutral at a minimum, in the national interest, and specific and practical. Ms Wood, who has already provided recommendations to the Treasurer on tax, energy and AI, has suggested a cashflow tax that would have been neutral to the budget in the medium term but was immediately rejected by big business.

The Board of Treasurers, chaired by NSW’s Daniel Mookhey, met last week and will finalise state and territory government ­positions ahead of the roundtable at a meeting late next week. Mr Mookhey is the only state and territory government representative at the roundtable, which has excluded local government officials despite a deregulation push across all tiers of government.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, who met industry and union ­bosses on Tuesday, will hold talks with local government representatives in a separate roundtable on Wednesday as she seeks to achieve Labor’s target of 1.2 million new homes by mid-2029. Between July 8 and August 15, ministers will have held 41 separate roundtables with stakeholders.

Ms O’Neil said: “It takes much longer to approve a home than to build one … this needs to change. Building regulations need to be simpler, environmental approvals faster and new technologies easier to adopt.”

Housing Industry Australia chief executive Simon Croft who attended Ms O’Neil’s roundtable said he was encouraged to see this level of government engagement.

Dr Chalmers has met business executives including Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Comyn, Westpac’s Anthony Miller, HSBC’s Antony Shaw and Barrenjoey’s Matthew Grounds, as well as BHP’s Mike Henry, Woodside’s Meg O’Neill, Rio Tinto’s Kellie Parker, INPEX’s Bill Townsend, Fortescue’s Dino Otranto, Shell Australia’s Cecile Wake, Wesfarmers boss Rob Scott, Google chief Mel Silva, Telstra’s Vicki Brady and AustralianSuper chief executive Paul Schroder. Invitees to Dr Chalmers’ roundtable, who will not be forced to sign confidentiality agreements and can speak publicly about discussions, include Tech Council of Australia chair Scott Farquhar, ACTU secretary Sally McManus, BCA chief executive Bran Black, ACOSS chief Cassandra Goldie, IFM Investors chair Cath Bowtell, Australian Retirement Trust chair Andrew Fraser, Woodside board member Ben Wyatt and Mr Comyn.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Ted O’Brien, who has been meeting business leaders, will attend but is unlikely to push any major reforms given the Coalition is working through a policy review.

The Australian can reveal that a business alliance working together ahead of the roundtable has swelled to 30 industry groups and is preparing a pre-summit joint statement outlining their priorities for outcomes.

BHP Australia president Geraldine Slattery on Tuesday warned that any “meaningful conversation about productivity” must focus on making tax settings more globally competitive to help unlock new investment and growth across the private sector.

Amid calls from unions for the Albanese government to hike taxes for the country’s biggest companies, Ms Slattery said “proposals to increase the tax burden on Australian businesses would be counter-productive”.