Speaker: Bran Black, Chief Executive, Business Council of Australia

**Check against delivery**

It’s almost 12 months to the day since I stepped into this role.

Naturally, every new CEO is keen to make their own mark.

But I’m also a big believer that you often need to look backwards to see the path forwards.

These are my first formal remarks in this forum as CEO, and so I’ve spent some time reading the remarks of previous years.

Speeches of BCA leaders past —which many of you were either present for, or even delivered—have a common ring to them.

They’re asking for governments to take the bold steps on the things that genuinely matter to ensure prosperity for the next generation:

Tax.

Regulation.

Economic reforms in the true sense of the word.

They’re asking for governments to back businesses.

To really understand— to not simply pay lip service to—private enterprise as the true path to building our economy and creating jobs.

To help Australian businesses move forward, and to not create new or higher hurdles for us.

And they all call out the risks of inaction, and in taking business for granted.

Now, the cynics’ response to this has always been predictable – pointing to well-run businesses that are making profits, paying dividends and taxes, and employing Australians.

Big business concerns are all smoke and no fire, they say.

Big business always proclaims the dire risk which never eventuates.

Well, my message this evening is that this risk is here.

And all Australians are feeling the consequences.

You feel it if you’re one of the 1,200 plus businesses that declared insolvency in July alone.

You feel it if you’re an employee of one of those businesses.

And you feel it if you’re a young Australian worried about your future.

Fearful that you may never be able to own a home.

Living with the expectation of being taxed more and more as our nation’s spending needs escalate, and the relative size of our workforce declines.

Ladies and gentlemen, the great privilege of my job is the relationships I get to have with those of you leading our important national institutions.

With the possible exception of the Treasurer and my outstanding predecessor, Jennifer Westacott, I may be the only person here who over the past 12 months has met one-on-one with the CEO of every company represented in this room.

To have heard what is keeping you awake at night, to have heard what you’re focused on.

What struck me is that in at least half of those conversations you jumped—without prompting—to the weight of responsibility you feel as leaders of our great employers.

The responsibility that you feel to drive national prosperity, not just shareholder wealth.

I found a wonderful quote in this regard from our late founding President, Sir Arvi Parbo.

He said:

“The Business Council of Australia, just like companies of the calibre of BHP, is not here just to look after the interests of members or shareholders.

[We] are national institutions …

Such organisations are effectively responsible to all Australians…

It is a grave responsibility for the present and future leaders of such organisations.” 

A grave responsibility.

That sentiment rings true in all the conversations I’ve had with you.

What also rings true is that rather than feeling confident in our growing national prosperity, many CEOs feel we are losing our way.

Instead of taking the big steps on the things that matter, we are taking incremental—but noticeable—steps backwards.

This shouldn’t be dismissed as talking Australia down.

It’s a belief right across our membership that we can and must do better for our future generations.

And it’s not un-Australian to call that out.

I’ve spoken to many CEOs who’ve said they are far, far more cautious about hiring after the Government’s raft of recent workplace changes.

And this underlines the point that for a good job to be well-paid, it has to exist first.

Instead, we’re steadily increasing, not removing, regulation – making it harder to run a business.

We see ideas on the table to force our best performing companies to divest, notwithstanding review after independent review says this is the wrong way to go.

And we’ve seen so-called ‘Robin Hood’ proposals to impose even greater taxes on our success.

All of this reduces our competitiveness as a nation.

And the upshot is best illustrated by the fact that I now have members – major employers – who are now actively choosing to invest overseas rather than in Australia.

The simple fact is that most of the things we have going for us now are the same things we had going for us twenty years ago.

But the world is changing, and moving on, and we’ve got to do more.

And my argument is that we have let the balance shift too far away from encouraging Australians to grow, hire, innovate and be more competitive on the world stage.

Ladies and gentlemen, the need to be competitive isn’t about winning some meaningless global prize.

It’s about making sure we can maintain our quality of life.

As things stand, last year’s Intergenerational Report says we may not.

It says we’re at risk of bequeathing a poorer quality of life to our children than that which we inherited.

Over the longer term, the IGR predicts that growth in Commonwealth spending will far exceed growth in revenue.

The number of working Australians per retiree will fall from the current 3.8 to just 2.6 within 40 years.

And the outcome will be an ever-widening budget deficit and rising public debt – meaning an even heavier fiscal burden on future generations.

Having said that, I genuinely love the Treasurer’s point that the IGR is not a predetermination.

It’s a projection.

So, it’s up to us to change it.

But nothing—and I am being brutally honest here—nothing we have seen seriously proposed by any side of politics in recent times would significantly alter that projection.

We’re past the opportunity for incremental steps, and so the only thing that will matter is bold steps in policy.

And the BCA will continue advocating for those bold steps, even if they seem hard to take.

On your tables tonight we’ve placed the summary of the platform for which the BCA will advocate ahead of this election.

It outlines five major questions facing our nation, none of which should be a surprise to anyone:

• How do we ease cost-of-living for Australians? 

• How do we tackle the housing crisis? 

• How do we achieve net zero by 2050, with both affordable and reliable energy? 
• How do we pay for the growing care needs of Australians? 

• How do we develop a skilled workforce for the future? 

Over the coming months, we will endeavour to provide detailed policy answers to each of these questions in our advocacy.

And we will endeavour to do so with durable long-term policy that calls out the populist policies that are often put forward as answers – for what they

are:

Red herrings.

Of course, no issue is more pressing for Australians right now than the cost-of-living crisis.

The real answer, as any good economist will tell you, is that we need to become more productive.

That is the only thing that really matters when it comes to improving long-term quality of life in this country.

It means less red tape and regulation.

It means more flexible workplace laws.

It means simpler planning systems.

It means a more efficient tax system.

Now, I’m not naïve. I know these steps are challenging. Indeed, they’re painfully hard and come with electoral risk.

But there are some steps that we should take, and take soon.

For example, we must get back as quickly as possible to having employers and employees reach agreements for their workplaces that reflect the fact that every business is unique, rather than seeing more top-down, one-size-fits-all approaches to policy.

Abolishing multi-employer bargaining must be seen as a priority in this regard.

Similarly, the BCA has called and will continue to call for the establishment of a new national fund to provide states and territories with financial incentives to undertake productivity driving reform.

This National Reform Fund could provide funding for:

• Faster and better planning approvals for housing
• Folding payroll tax arrangements into one national system (or scrapping them altogether); and
• Replacing stamp duty with land tax.

And let me stress here – this is not a new approach.

Indeed, national competition policy reforms in the late 90s and early 2000s turned $5 billion in Commonwealth payments to states and territories into an additional $60 billion for the national economy.

Ladies and gentlemen, the kind of reform I’ve canvassed is only possible with a groundswell of voices.

And that’s why unity is so important to the way I lead the BCA.

You’ll see here tonight Andrew McKellar from ACCI, Luke Achterstraat from COSBOA and Tania Constable from the MCA.

We’re all committed to working together to advocate in the long-term interest of our national prosperity.

And the simple point is that we achieve more, and that we are at our best, when we’re working as one. 

Together we believe that a big first step is genuine national recognition that successful business underpins prosperity. 

Together we know profitable businesses are vital to the way of life of every Australian.

And together we stand as one against populist policy and business bashing. 

An attack on businesses – big or small – is an attack on all Australians.

The signals are clear—competitiveness, productivity, growth and prosperity must be our priorities.

And so we must commit ourselves to the task of ensuring we are not the first Australian generation to leave our children poorer.