Article by Geoff Chambers, courtesy of The Australian.
Chief executives of the nation’s biggest companies are warning Australia is “losing our way” and taking “steps backwards” under Labor, with the Business Council of Australia taking a shot at Anthony Albanese for accusing disgruntled employers of “talking Australia down”.
In a speech to be delivered in front of the Prime Minister on Tuesday night, BCA chief executive Bran Black will warn that companies are more cautious about hiring and actively choosing to invest overseas amid a perfect storm of industrial relations laws, regulations and taxes.
A week after Mr Albanese was berated by mining bosses for bringing “conflict to every workplace”, Mr Black will use his first BCA annual dinner address as chief executive to put Mr Albanese, Peter Dutton and Adam Bandt on notice ahead of next year’s election.
Mr Black, who represents Australia’s largest businesses including BHP, the big four banks and accounting firms, Wesfarmers, Hancock Prospecting, Telstra, Atlassian and Qantas, said many chief executives “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,” Mr Black will say.
“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 have said they are far more cautious about hiring after the government’s raft of recent workplace changes.”
Mr Albanese, who claimed before the 2022 election he would be a pro-business Prime Minister, drew the ire of corporate Australia last week after telling mining chiefs not to “let points of disagreement” hold back the country.
“If we listen to those who spend all their time talking Australia down and saying our companies can’t compete and our workers shouldn’t try … then the world will go right past us,” the Prime Minister said.
After ACTU president Michele O’Neil on Monday revealed union leaders would wage a WorkChoices-style election campaign in defence of Labor’s IR laws, Mr Black will tell Mr Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers that “for a good job to be well-paid, it has to exist first”.
Mr Black, who replaced long-time BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott last year, will say: “Abolishing multi-employer bargaining must be seen as a priority in this regard. 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.”
The BCA chief, who recently signed up billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, will warn Labor, the Coalition and the Greens that the country is on track to leave future generations with a heavier fiscal burden fuelled by massive budget deficits and public debt.
“Nothing we have seen seriously proposed by any side of politics in recent times would significantly alter that projection,” he will say. “We’re past the opportunity for incremental steps, and so the only thing that will matter is bold steps in policy. We’re steadily increasing, not removing, regulation – making it harder to run a business.”
Promising to call-out “red herring” populist policies ahead of the election, Mr Black will chip the Coalition over a Nationals-led push to break-up Australian companies.
“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,” he will say. “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.”
BCA board members, including president Geoff Culbert, CBA chief executive Matt Comyn, Wesfarmers managing director Rob Scott, Rio Tinto Australia chief executive Kellie Parker and Google Australia managing director Mel Silva, will attend the Sydney dinner. With major industry groups preparing big-spending, co-ordinated campaigns targeting Labor’s IR laws, Mr Black will outline the BCA’s five-point pre-election manifesto focused on easing the cost-of-living crisis, combating the housing crisis, delivering net-zero emissions by 2050 while providing affordable and reliable energy, addressing care economy pressures and mapping out employers’ plans to build Australia’s future skilled workforce.
He will also reiterate the BCA’s call to establish a national fund supporting faster and better housing planning approvals, harmonising or abolishing payroll tax arrangements and replacing stamp duty with land tax.
With the BCA railing against a climate trigger deal with the Greens to pass Labor’s contentious Nature Positive environment legislation, Mr Albanese on Monday ruled out any such move.
“With regard to climate trigger … I’ve made it clear … that I don’t support adding a trigger to that legislation,” Mr Albanese said a day before the BCA dinner.
The BCA showdown follows national accounts figures showing that GDP per hour worked, a proxy for labour productivity, slumped by another 0.8 per cent in June, erasing any productivity gains in the past five years.
Mr Black will say the productivity plunge must be reversed because it 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,” he will say. “It means more flexible workplace laws. It means simpler planning systems. It means a more efficient tax system. Now, I’m not naive. 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.”
The ACTU on Monday accused the Opposition Leader of being “on the side of big business … of people who want to cut pay and conditions”. Ms O’Neil said unions would run a campaign warning workers the Coalition would unwind multi-employer bargaining, “same job, same pay” and right-to-disconnect laws.
“It’s not a scare campaign when you’re telling working people the truth,” Ms O’Neil said. “And what is clear now, as has been said by Peter Dutton … is that they intend to take away the rights that workers fought for a long time to win. We’ll be telling them that if there was a change of government and a government led by Peter Dutton, then they would see the removal of rights for casual workers back into insecure work. We’ll be telling local people that that’s what they intend to do.”
In response to critics of corporate Australia who say “big business concerns are all smoke and no fire” and that the “dire risk” companies claim never eventuates, Mr Black will say the “risk is here … and all Australians are feeling the consequences”.
“You feel it if you’re one of the 1200-plus businesses that declared insolvency in July alone,” he will say. “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.”
