Road to recovery
The October federal budget is a crucial opportunity to build on Australia’s strong starting position and outline a practical recovery roadmap that puts the country on track for the future.
Today the Business Council has published our budget submission.
Our submission is focused on getting the economy moving again and supporting demand through practical measures that can be implemented quickly to build confidence, create jobs and speed up the recovery.
Australia’s strength and resilience has helped us in the past but we have never seen a crisis like this. Responding to it will require us to build on our strengths and consider new strategies.
We’ve managed the COVID crisis relatively successfully compared with other countries, but we can’t waste a moment to prioritise the creation of new jobs, help people back into work and get businesses back up and running.
Every dollar must enable the country to recover and move forward by prioritising policies and programs that:
- create jobs
- increase the rate of growth
- make Australia more competitive
- increase productivity, and
- solve major social challenges.
Business is ready to get on with the job of recovery. Increasing business activity is the only way to create jobs and grow incomes.
Our economic recovery depends on finding ways to work alongside the virus while measures to control the health impacts continue.
The job creation task ahead of us is massive. We need to generate about 1.5 million new jobs – more than 10 per cent of the pre-COVID workforce – to replace the jobs and hours lost during the pandemic and the jobs at risk as the economy restructures.
Every month of delay is a lost opportunity. One month of emergency supports costs more than one year of tax reform.
Now is the time to shift from emergency support to funding sustained growth and taking the crucial steps to strengthen the economy and make it more internationally competitive.
We need to act now, not sit in the slow lane while the rest of the world moves on with recovery.
To protect existing jobs and create new ones, we need to immediately take the steps to reverse the dramatic freefall in business investment and halt the exodus of investment offshore.
For the next three to five years, we will need to learn to live with debt, but only where it is an investment in rebuilding our economy and society.
Chairman @ Neota
4 年This a very fine and well pitched - and debatable - submission. The Treasury has a great opportunity to define a better future for Australia in the way that it responds to all such submissions in the coming weeks. Agree that speed and certainty are of the essence. "One month of emergency supports costs more than one year of tax reform."