Robert Carruthers: WA merits a spot at Jim Chalmers economic reform roundtable

West Australian

4 days ago

There's just over a month until Treasurer Jim Chalmers' highly anticipated economic reform roundtable. The guest list is still being finalised, and the agenda has evolved to tackle ever-growing 'pillars' of reform.
Whatever the roundtable's name or shape, the problem statement is clear: Australia's prosperity is under the gun, and we need to become far more match-fit.
That's precisely why more key players from WA's dominant resources sector should receive a call-up. Australia's largest exporters are clearly critical to Australia's prosperity.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken of his Government's mandate to make lasting change. Indeed, alongside his Treasurer, there's the opportunity to become generational reformers in the mould of past Labor luminaries.
But here's the rub: consensus-seeking cannot be the singular objective. We're right to be wary of well-choreographed, Canberra-centric thinking and an invite list that is too narrow. Without strong representation and leadership, we risk ending up with a well-rounded table but a flat agenda.
WA has produced world-beaters across medicine, tech, and sport — and last week, a boy from the Wheatbelt ascended to the top job at Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest diversified mining companies.
Yet of the 24 formal invites issued, to date only one has been summoned from WA. There is no doubt former WA treasurer Ben Wyatt will be a strong voice and wears many hats, including board roles with major resources companies. Still, a solitary voice is not sufficient from a State that contributes more than half of Australia's export earnings.
Resources Minister Madeleine King deserves credit for convening sector leaders in a series of mini roundtables in Perth last week, with identified priorities to feed into the broader Canberra roundtable. It's a measure of the respect that Minister King has earned for her ongoing engagement and support for the sector. It just makes sense to extend more invitations to WA's industry leaders to accompany her in making the 3000km journey east.
Successive governments have shied away from tackling broad-based tax reform. The net result is an overly complex system reliant on a proportionally narrowing base, akin to a death by thousand cuts labyrinth.
The Albanese Government was elected with a mandate for lower taxes (with the notable exception of superannuation tax). Yet, concerningly, the Treasurer has taken to flying kites in recent weeks to test support for introducing new taxes.
Any move to increase resources-based taxes should be called out for what it is: a shakedown on WA. The allure of low-hanging revenue measures must not substitute for meaningful rationalisation of the tax system across all levels of government.
As former WA premier Colin Barnett argued, not even the GST distribution should be off-limits in the quest for meaningful reform.
Ask global resources companies who have recently invested in North or South America what welcome mat measures were rolled out to secure their investment in those jurisdictions. You can bet it was streamlined and designed to incentivise investment and job creation — not a confusing queue of overlapping requirements. WA's mining leaders can share firsthand what Australia is getting right, and what we're getting dangerously wrong.
Any serious economic reform agenda must tackle the red tape holding back major projects across the nation. This is fundamental not just for WA resources projects, but for the infrastructure and energy transition projects that are vital for future generations.
It's noteworthy that Dr Ken Henry, architect of the last major template for tax reform, is now championing environmental regulatory reform as the single greatest opportunity to lift productivity and protect Australia's environment.
It's a conundrum I'm equally passionate about. For two decades, there's been broad agreement on the need to reform the EPBC system which is contorted, cautious, and far from certain.
New Environment Minister Murray Watt has taken an encouragingly proactive and pragmatic approach, openly acknowledging that not everyone can be happy with every aspect in the pursuit of meaningful reform. The proposed framework for streamlined environmental regulatory approvals — with standards set nationally and ideally implemented by the States under a single pathway — should have top billing at the roundtable.
No conversation on productivity is complete without addressing industrial relations. It's the elephant in the room.
The IR system had sizeable chunks re-jigged during the first term Albanese Government, but these reforms broke the link to productivity and international competitiveness.
The roundtable presents an opportunity to hardwire productivity back into Australia's IR landscape. Past Labor governments have succeeded in striking accords between employers, employees, and unions to share responsibility for both delivering efficiency and sharing the benefits.
Cyclical industries like the resources sectors need the flexibility to adapt to changing conditions. There are good global examples, including in US heavy industries, where these kinds of flexible workplace agreements have become a foundation for shared resilience and job security. We simply must get these settings right to secure Australia's competitiveness.
It is puzzling that Australia's largest export industry did not make the first cut of invitations to the roundtable.
The Prime Minister outwardly acknowledged the sector's central importance when he invited senior iron ore executives on his recent high-level state visit to China.
WA's wealth-generating industry deserves more than a sideline role in shaping national economic reform. If the NSW Treasurer can secure a seat at the roundtable, surely our world-leading mining CEOs and WA's Premier warrant their place too.
Robert Carruthers is Principal at CSA Ltd