The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook shows the economy is poised to roar back to life, now we’ll need to lock this trajectory, Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.

“Our world class management of the pandemic and the quiet resilience of Australians means we’re positioned for a strong recovery. 

“The government has softened the blow of the pandemic and helped boost investment with temporary measures, now we must permanently unshackle private sector balance sheets and let business do the heavy lifting.

“Now we’ll need to secure our economic future by making this temporary success permanent.

“MYEFO highlights the funding pressures for the budget in the years ahead so it is critical that this isn’t just a sugar hit.

“To continue funding the services Australians want, creating new jobs and paying down our record debt, we’ll need higher than average economic growth and deeper, more sustained business investment.

“Our challenge now is to ensure that encouraging business investment and jobs forecasts become a reality.

“Investment fuels productivity and higher wages, so reversing near record lows of business investment is crucial.

“Locking in a strong recovery will mean sticking to the plan to reopen, managing the supply constraints that are putting a handbrake on the recovery and tearing down fortress Australia.

“We have to continue reducing the economic friction that makes it hard to do new things.

“We’ll also need to make permanent economic changes to make ourselves more competitive and drive business investment.

“This means unleashing private sector balance sheets by getting rid of old and outdated regulation, making our tax settings more competitive and skilling up Australians.

“We are in a good position, but we’re not out of the woods. We have a competitive head start, so let’s build on that and set the country up for the future.

“Without taking the decisions that make Australia a more competitive place to invest we risk letting our momentum stall and seeing the sacrifices Australians have made go to waste.”