Speakers: ABC News Breakfast, Host James Glenday; Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Bran Black
Topics: Regulation Rumble 2025, net zero by 2050
E&OE
James Glenday, ABC News Breakfast Host: The Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia, Bran Black, joins us from Adelaide. Bran welcome back to News Breakfast.
Bran Black, Chief Executive: Hello, thanks so much for having me.
James: Now you have ranked the best and worst places to do business in Australia. So in your view, where is the best place to do business and where is the worst?
Bran: Well, look what we do with our report is really try and shine a light on those settings that work in terms of attracting investment and we do that to try and encourage all states and territories to be as competitive as possible with one another to try and secure investment. We rank, on the one hand, cost and regulation settings, and on the other hand, we look at planning settings as well.
South Australia came out on top in both of those areas, cost and regulation and planning. Victoria still has the most work to do of all the states and territories, it’s moved up a point in terms of its planning settings, but it’s really got a lot of work to do in terms of its cost and regulatory settings.
James: Now, I don’t think it’s going to come as a huge surprise to our viewers that big businesses would rather pay less tax and have fewer regulations.
What do you say to people who are watching in Victoria, which is ranked last there, who say, ‘Actually, we’re quite happy that business has to pay a bit more tax here we can spend that money on other things.’
Bran: Well, what I’d say, certainly in terms of Victoria, it’s led the country in terms of unemployment for 17 of the last 18 months, and 20 years ago, the average Victorian had an average income of about 2 per cent above the national average, it’s now 11 points below.
So there is scope for Victoria to improve. And my urging would be for Victoria and for every other state to look at all the steps that they can take to encourage investment into their jurisdiction.
And the primary reason for that is that business investment is the driver of productivity, that lifts real wages and of course, that means that you’ve got a higher quality of life.
And in practical terms, in terms of our report, when we’re looking at cost and regulation, if you can get your costs and your regulatory settings down, that ultimately means that consumers, customers are better off, and in terms of planning, it means that we’re delivering more homes faster.
James: Do you think that many of the Labor premiers around the country, and they are predominantly Labor at the moment, do they listen to these reports and pay a lot of attention to them?
Bran: We are very fortunate to have a lot of engagement with premiers right around the country and treasurers right around the country in the lead-up to this report and after the report. I’ve had so many conversations with premiers and with treasurers where they say, ‘Look, what are the settings that you think that we can improve on? How do we do it?’
Now, of course, they’ve got to take those bits of advice that we provide back to their respective cabinets, but they are interested in understanding what the settings are that they need to improve on in order to move up the rankings.
It’s not just, of course, for the sake of having the Business Council’s tick of approval, they appreciate that these settings are important in the context of driving business investment and productivity outcomes and living improvements for their people.
James: Now, Bran, you’ve worked for a number of state Liberal ministers in New South Wales. You’re the Chief of Staff to the former Premier Dominic Perrottet. He supported net zero, the Business Council also supports net zero, but not just any net zero, net Zero by 2050, what do your members make of the federal opposition in Australia going to war internally yet again over climate action?
Bran: Well, look, I’ll leave the political commentary for others. As I say, our commitment to net zero is very clear, we believe that it’s important to retain the commitment, but also in the context of the date.
But I do make the point that we need to do that affordably and reliably, and we need to make sure that we continue to guarantee Australia as a competitive place in which to do business. What that means, in very practical terms, is that we need to have a clear plan and pathway towards what that net zero looks like.
So for us, for the business community, it’s that plan that we are looking for that looks at how we can deliver the net zero ambition, delivers it reliably, delivers it affordably, and maintains competitiveness, but shows us what it means so that there is confidence to invest.
James: Yeah, just on that. I mean, we always hear that business wants certainty. I’m pretty confident that members of your organisation have come on this show and said that, can businesses confidently make decades long investments at the moment, while the Coalition is toying with this idea of abandoning net zero entirely?
Bran: As I say, it goes back to having a plan, and we think that that is the important thing. So we urge, now that the 2035 target has been announced by the Government, we urge the continuation of the work that’s intended to put some meat on the bones of the different sectoral approaches to how we go about achieving net zero, but as I say, we need to make sure that we do that in an affordable and reliable way, and that we maintain Australia’s competitiveness along the way as well.
But it is important to have a target, we think that that gives us a basis for understanding what it is that we’re ultimately trying to achieve.
James: Bran, always appreciate having your thoughts on the show. Thank you very much for joining News Breakfast.