Speaker: Geoff Culbert, President of the Business Council of Australia 

**Check against delivery**

Thank you very much Bran. And thank you all for joining us tonight.

We’re pleased to have the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, in attendance, along with much of his cabinet, and we look forward to hearing from the

Prime Minister shortly.

This is my first Annual Dinner as President of the BCA, although I have sat in this room for the last decade in my capacity as a CEO and as a BCA member. 

Thinking back over that last decade, I have two observations.

First, the Australian business community has never faced greater headwinds.

Second, and as a consequence, the role of the BCA has never been more important. 

There is now a material and concerning disconnect between the negative way in which business is perceived, and the positive value it creates for Australia.

Somewhere along the way, business has become a convenient scapegoat for all manner of challenging issues, and it’s coming from all sides of politics.

We can debate the reasons for this—some of it is self-inflicted. We have scored too many own goals, and we have to take responsibility for that.

What you cannot debate is the contribution that business makes to the success and prosperity of the nation, and the facts are undeniable.

• Business employs 6 out of 7 working Australians. 
• Business paid $145 billion in taxes last year, which constitutes close to a quarter of the Federal budget.
• There will never be a budget surplus without business. 
• There are very few jobs in Australia without business.

And when I refer to “business” I mean all businesses – big and small.

It’s artificial to draw a distinction between the two.

We all operate in the same ecosystem.

The exchange between small and big business is worth $700 billion per year, which is close to 30 per cent of the economy.

And every big business started off as a small business with ambitions to grow.

So, it begs the question – what’s to be gained by tearing down the role of big business in Australia?

It may be popular to bash big business, but in doing so we are making success taboo in this country – and that is not consequence free.

Why would anyone want to invest in Australia where even a modicum of success is criticised?

Why would anyone want to invest in a country where a 4 or 5 per cent profit margin gets you an accusation of price gouging and a call for divestment

And why do we continually criticise the sectors that underwrite our national prosperity?

Whether you like it or not, the mining and resources sector has been the bedrock of Australia’s economic success for the past century.

Over the past two decades our university sector has built a product that is truly world-class and is now our second biggest export market behind mining and resources.

But rather than celebrate that success and support our most globally competitive industries we seek to slow them down.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan the narrative for doing business in Australia cannot be “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidise it.

But that is the direction we’re heading.

It’s important that I make these comments. The role of the BCA is to advocate for - and where necessary - defend the business community.

But there’s a bigger issue at stake here that needs to be discussed. And I want this to be the focus of my comments tonight.\

That is the growing danger of populism.

And the impact it’s having on the trust and respect for the institutions that lead our country

And the impact that is having on the ability to argue for meaningful long-term reform that will drive the success and prosperity of the nation.

I don’t think I would be alone in saying I’m concerned about the state of democracy in Western countries.

You only have to look around the world to understand what I’m talking about.

The popular thinking is that will never happen in Australia.

I’d like to share that view.

But what we’re seeing around the world provides an important lesson in how quickly unity can fragment when self-interest trumps national interest, and populism takes hold.

Robust and respectful debate is essential.

It’s the cornerstone of functional democracies. No one would disagree with that.

But the purpose of that debate must be to come up with solutions that are in the long-term interests of the country.

We cannot let ourselves get trapped in an endless cycle of short-term thinking and blame-shifting.

This only serves to undermine the public’s trust and respect in the institutions that set the agenda and direction of the nation.

It creates a wedge that gets exploited by minority interests.

And it weakens the ability for all of us to argue for meaningful long-term reform.

The public look to all of us for leadership. They look to all of us for solutions to complex problems.

As President of the BCA, it is my overwhelming preference to work constructively with everyone to deliver those long-term solutions.

Because a strong and successful nation is one where business respects the role of government, and where government respects the role of business.

A strong and successful nation is one where business and government work together to build the future wealth and prosperity of the country.

That’s what the business community wants, and that’s what the country needs.

But to do that, we all have to be willing to tell the story of successful business in a successful Australia.

We have to resist the cycle of populist short-term thinking.

We have to be prepared to face into and tackle the hard issues that will define our future.

And the scapegoating of business has to stop.

In 2006 our past President, Michael Chaney, said at the BCA Annual Dinner:

“As a nation, we’ll be condemned to confront the same reform barriers and economic imbalances every 10 to 20 years if we fail to address a number of key underlying issues.”

Michael was talking about driving productivity through reforms to tax, workplace relations, regulation and red tape.

That was almost 20 years ago and we’re still talking about those same issues today.

These are the issues that will define our long-term success as a country, and these are the issues the BCA is focusing on.

And we are not alone in calling for this. We are one of a chorus of voices including, as recently as this morning, the former ACTU Secretary, Bill Kelty.

And they lie at the core of the five big national questions that Bran raised in his speech. 

How do we ease the 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?

Each of these questions is hard. There is no easy, quick answer to any of these issues.

We have to resist the populist red-herrings and we have to go after meaningful reform.

And if we are going to make any real headway on these issues, we have to work together, or we’ll still be talking about them in another 20 years.

And our commitment on this is very clear.

The BCA will continue to put forward ideas that drive the long-term success and prosperity of the country.

We will support good ideas regardless of which side of politics those ideas come from.

At the same time, we will argue strongly against any short-term, populist policies.

And we’ll continue to do so, in a forthright, rational and practical way. Backed by facts and evidence.

We have backed in the government on its gas strategy, which we think is a commonsense approach in the long-term national interest.

We also backed in the government in respect to skilled migration and their cyber strategy.

We applaud the bipartisan approach announced last week with respect to aged care reform.

That was genuine reform – genuine bipartisan reform - and we need more of that.

At the same time, we’ll continue to argue strongly against counter-productive IR changes.

We’ll argue against forced divestiture.

We argued against climate triggers, and we’ll continue to argue against self-destructive over-taxation.

We genuinely believe these will hurt the long-term success of the country.

When launching the Business Council in 1983, Bob Hawke said:

“I hope… we get advice that is more than special pleading. Special pleading is an inevitable part of our democracy, but it is not helpful if it is the only

advice we get from business. What we welcome is responsible advice about reform that makes sense for the Australian economy as a whole.”

That was over 40 years ago, and Bob Hawke was right.

That is the role of the Business Council – to provide responsible advice about reform that makes sense for the Australian economy as a whole.

That is what the BCA does, and it’s what we’ll continue to do.

And given the current environment, that role has never been more important.

We look forward to working together with everyone in this room to build a strong and successful Australia.

To solve the long-term challenges that will define our future.

And to do it in a way that builds the public’s trust and respect for the important institutions that lead our democracy.