Event: BCA Chief Executive Bran Black interview with Ross Greenwood, Business Now, Sky News

Speakers: Business Now, Host Ross Greenwood; Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Bran Black

Date: 8 May 2025

Topics: Productivity, approvals processes, gas supply

E&OE

Ross Greenwood, Business Now Host: Bran Black is the Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia and joins me now. Many thanks for your time, Bran. That’s the dilemma, to a certain extent, that the Labor Party faces right now, isn’t it?

Bran Black, Business Council Chief Executive: Well, firstly thanks for having me on the show, it’s great to see you again. Look from our perspective, we see that there is an enormous opportunity with a government that's got a significant majority, such as the Labor Government now has. There are so many reform priorities that have eluded Australia now for the better part of a couple of decades, and as we see it, now is the time to really try and use that majority to deliver on those key reform priorities that will set Australia up for the future, as everybody I know wants to do.

Ross: Okay so the issue is when you’re a first term government you’re worried about trying to win that second term but when you’ve won your second election so decisively it gives you the chance to be bold. Now, the question is where should the priorities be immediately for a Labor Government because from your perspective, some of the moves it made particularly around industrial relations in the first term were seen to be regressive and not progressive?

Bran: I think that's right, we certainly opposed the industrial relations reforms of the first term and there are, of course, some industrial relations reforms that have been foreshadowed during the course of the campaign, which we've also opposed but I think the critical point in terms of what comes next is to look at what are the challenges that Australia is facing right now. And if I could say in broad terms, I think they are as follows: firstly, we face global uncertainty, secondly, we've got demographic challenges in terms of a proportionately older population and a proportionately smaller working population, and then we've also got, of course, that challenge that you and I have spoken about at length, low productivity.

And we think that if we can address those challenges, the way to do it is by controlling the things that are within our scope to control. For us, that means looking at how we can achieve better regulation, what we can do to perhaps usher in some type of business allowance, what we can do in terms of research and development, but also and critically, and I know that both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have spoken about this at length, is how we can go about reforming federal approvals processes to achieve much greater simplicity, certainty, outcomes for business, but also outcomes for the environment.

Ross: But then Australia right now, as we sit here, lags on competitive measures around the world. We’re seen to now have relatively high energy prices, we’re seen to have relatively high labour prices, we’re seen to have relatively high taxes compared with other parts of the world and that’s one thing that’s led many of your members, the bigger businesses of Australia, to move capital overseas. The question is, how do we improve competitiveness to bring those companies and their capital back to Australia?

Bran: Well, it goes directly to the economic fundamentals, and you're dead right, I do hear from my members that Australia is a less competitive destination for investment than it was in years past and decades past, and that they're finding it harder and harder to justify investments in Australia, and conversely, of course, easier to look elsewhere. That's the opposite of what we want to see. We want to see companies looking at Australia and thinking, we’re great because we've got natural advantages, we're great because we have a skilled population, but we're also great because we've got the right type of competitive settings.

Now, in order to get those economic fundamentals right, it means achieving those policy reforms that we know shift the dial, as they have done for other countries and as they are doing right now. So we should be looking at our tax settings, we should be looking at how we can achieve better regulation settings, reducing red tape burdens for businesses and of course, we've got to be looking at our approvals processes, making them as streamlined as possible, as certain as possible, and also making sure that we can achieve that balance between business interests and environment interests as well.

That's just a snapshot, but that goes directly to the fundamentals, so if we get those right, we start to improve our competitiveness, we start to attract more investment into the country, and that ultimately means we grow the size of our economic pie for the benefit of all Australians.

Ross: And we should point out and clarify this is not about the old class wars of business trying to screw workers out of wages to try and save costs, to try and boost their own profits, this is actually something quite different, this is about business, from my observation, is prepared to pay higher and more so long as there is productivity, and so long as Australia remains as competitive as it possibly can be to attract that capital and to attract that investment.

Bran: That's absolutely correct, 100 per cent right in our view. The way we see it at the end of the day, if we're able to achieve productivity growth, then that's the best way of delivering the outcome that we all want to see at the end of the day, the real test of success, and that is real wages increases for all Australians right, across our economy.

We haven’t seen those to the extent that we'd be looking for over the course of a number of years now, and if we can turn our productivity settings around, as I know the government is intent upon doing, so much the better.

From our perspective, it was particularly pleasing to see the Treasurer, in his first interview post the election say directly that productivity was going to be the focus for the Government in this term.

We stand ready, the business community stands ready, of course, to make sure we can help the government deliver on that commitment.

Ross: So then another aspect is energy prices you spoke about, the key is to try and free up the environmental restrictions and the whole situation where they’re caught in courts to try and make certain that we get enough gas so that Australia can remain competitive.

Bran: That's absolutely right, I think one of the things that business looks for, indeed, the critical thing that business looks for in the energy space, is certainty as to policy. Now, we've got a majority government, a strong majority government now, and so there should be more confidence in the certainty that is afforded as a consequence of that electoral outcome.

But moving forward, we know that we're also facing into significant challenges in terms of our energy supply. Gas supply has of course, been discussed at great length. The answer to that particular challenge is getting more gas into the system. And if gas, of course, is needed in order to make sure that we can firm our renewables, we start to deliver those in greater number as well.

But in terms of gas, in order for us to get more supply into the system, as you say, we've got to be looking very closely at how we can go about making our approvals system faster. One of the key things that business has been advocating for is a single desk approach to approvals.

That means that instead of having a federal approval and a state approval, you have the states, for instance, accredited to look out for the federal approval process at the same time that they're running their own approvals processes.

That's not suggesting for a second that we'd be dispensing with the federal system, we'd just be saying that it's important, if we can, to consolidate it on one desk. That would make such a big difference, but that's only one of a number of key reforms that are required in order to make the overall approval system faster, and therefore, to your point, to get more gas into the system much quicker.

Ross: Well, tell you what, Bran Black, always good to chat to you and many thanks for your time on the program today.

Bran: Ross, it's great to see you. Thanks so much.