BCA Chief Executive Bran Black interview with Bridget Brennan, ABC News Breakfast

04 February 2025

Event: BCA Chief Executive Bran Black interview with Bridget Brennan, ABC News Breakfast, ABC
Speakers: ABC News Breakfast, Host Bridget Brennan; Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Bran Black
Date: 4 February 2025
Topics: Big Five Questions, Australia’s competitiveness, tax settings

E&OE

Bridget Brennan, ABC News Breakfast Host: It’s CEO, Bran Black joins us from Canberra. Welcome back Bran to News Breakfast.

Bran Black, Business Council Chief Executive: Thanks so much for having me.

Bridget: Yeah, it's great to talk to you. Look, there's quite a bit in this blueprint, including housing, health, the economy, climate change, but I really want to go to what you are saying is the central pressing point for Australia, the cost-of-living crisis.

What does the BCA think the major parties should be looking at to improve the cost-of-living for everyday Australians?

Bran: Well, broadly speaking, there are two areas that we need to focus on. Of course, there's spending at a government level, and that's across the Federal Government and also the State Governments, but the critical thing that we point to is productivity.

At the end of the day, we need to drive productivity in order to make sure that we're able to deliver real wages growth. Now, productivity is a funny concept, and it's sometimes a bit difficult to explain, but essentially it means getting more out of the inputs that you're putting in.

And what we see is that there is a direct correlation between productivity growth and real wages. So that's the money that you have at the end of the day or at the end of the week after you've paid for your groceries or your petrol or your mortgage or your school fees and so forth.

Bridget: And so Bran, what do businesses believe is the best way to tackle inflation when it comes to government policy and government spending?

Bran: Well, we’d say, with respect to spending there are a couple of key things that we're looking at. We're looking at, in our view, a focus on a tax to GDP cap of about 23.9 per cent, that's consistent with the position that used to be in place. And we're also looking at annual caps on increased spending of about two per cent.

What we say on the productivity side is that there are lots of different levers that can be pulled. Unfortunately, there's no single big productivity lever that you can pull, and then everything's all right. Unfortunately, it means taking incremental action across a whole range of areas that includes workplace relations reform, it means having a genuine deregulation agenda, it means looking at your tax settings, and of course, it means making sure you've got affordable and reliable energy sources as well.

Bridget: Just on energy, one of the points you've made is that, to you it's frustrating that there's not necessarily a bipartisan path forward to net zero. Why is that important do you think for the health of Australians?

Bran: What a bipartisan approach to energy policy would do is make sure that we can lock in certainty. And certainty is important because that's what industry looks for. You want to know that you're looking at a long-term plan as a potential investor in Australia's energy market, so that you've got the confidence to make the long-term investments that we need.

Bridget: And net zero is still a key priority for small and medium and large businesses in Australia?

Bran: That's absolutely correct, and we see that across the political divide, whether it's on the Coalition side or the Government side, both parties are committed to net zero, and so is the BCA and our membership.

Bridget: We saw some jitters in the market yesterday, Bran, off the back of that news on tariffs on Mexico and Canada announced by the US administration. Are there fears for Australian businesses that we could be hit by tariffs, or there just could be global implications from these measures coming out of the United States?

Bran: Well, that's a great question. There are a couple of different ways of looking at it. In the first instance, we hope that we're not the subject of any imposed tariffs in Australia, and we know that the Foreign Minister and Minister for Trade and so forth are deeply engaged in Washington and with their colleagues in the United States, making sure that they press the case for why Australia shouldn’t be subjected of tariffs.

But we also know that there's a risk associated with tariffs being applied to other countries to which we supply our goods and services. The risk there is that if tariffs are applied to those countries, then the demand for our commodities is reduced, and that, in turn, could have an impact on Australia, because we are at the end of the day a trading nation. One in four jobs is trade dependent.

What that means is that the best thing that we can do is just concentrate on being the most competitive place to do business that we can be, so that we can attract as much investment into Australia as possible.

Bridget: I know we're whizzing around a few topics, but I hope if you don't mind, if I get your thoughts and take the temperature on what businesses think of the Coalition's plan to allow tax deductions on some meals for smaller businesses. Do you think that's a good idea and a good use of public funds?

Bran: Well, we certainly do think that it's important to have a conversation with respect to the kind of taxation support that we can provide to business. What we would like to see is a holistic conversation in terms of Australia's tax settings. Ultimately, that is going to make the difference in terms of whether or not we're in a position to be, as I mentioned before, as competitive a place to do business as we can be.

But I do stress that what we've been looking for and what we continue to advocate for is a genuine assessment of all of Australia's tax settings, so that’s, business taxes, that is personal taxes, that's consumption taxes, and of course, that’s also state taxes, like payroll tax and stamp duty as well.

Bridget: And that proposal in particular, is that going to be comprehensive enough to give some businesses some relief at a difficult time? Do you think it's just a good incentive for businesses to get out there and be spending at some of our smaller businesses, hospitality, businesses I'm talking about that are really struggling?

Bran: We do think it's important to be helping businesses, absolutely. So yes, we think that there is a strong basis for providing supports that will encourage spending that supports business, and to that end, we're entirely happy to back in the proposals that have been put forward by our colleagues at the Council for Small Business.

Bridget: Thanks very much Bran Black for your time this morning. Good to talk to you.

Bran: Thanks so much.

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