Reform Standards for the 2007 Federal Election

Coverage of the release of Policy that Counts, the BCA’s reform standards for the 2007 federal election, in The Australian Financial Review, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

We are pretty frustrated. Over the last 10 to 15 years, the have been a lot of positive announcements that haven’t been followed up. The structure suffers from being an opportunity for political grandstanding. That’s inevitable when you have state Labor governments and a federal Liberal government, when it’s in their interests to take a contrary view.

From ‘Chaney Slams Reform Impasse’ by Joanne Gray, The Australian Financial Review, 18 April 2007, p. 1.

Mr Chaney said COAG [the Council of Australian Governments] relied on a kind of “reform amnesia” Announcements and commitments are made, referred to other ministerial councils and secretariats, then forgotten or not followed though, then announced again some way down the track as if they are brand new,” he said.

‘BCA’S Chaney Calls Both Sides to Account’ by Jennifer Hewett, The Australian, 18 April 2007, p. 31.

The head of the Business Council of Australia, Michael Chaney, warned that the urge to splurge on both sides of politics would be overwhelming in this election year. Sound policy making was being subsumed by “highly tactical responses to day-to-day, even hour-to-hour considerations”.

‘Vote-Buying Contest Triggers Rate Rise Alarm’ by Jessica Irvine, The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 April 2007, p. 6.

Australia’s major business body is urging both sides of politics to refrain from pork-barrelling and “ad hoc policy responses” in the run-up to the federal election and agree to a reform package aimed at lifting living standards. Business Council of Australia president Michael Chaney says a new set of reforms – framed around key areas including workplace relations, education, climate change, tax regulation, federal and state relations and infrastructure – are required to enable Australia to raise its living standards to within the top five countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development by 2012.

‘BCA Puts on Pressure over Voter Pork-Fest’ by Nassim Khadem, The Age, 18 April 2007 (Business), p. 1.