Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that productivity growth is a key contributor to increases in Australia's economic welfare and prosperity;

(2) acknowledges that:

(a) according to the June 2024 National Accounts, productivity has fallen 5.2 per cent since the Government came to office;

(b) the Government's continued failure on industrial relations legislation and poor economic management have caused businesses to rethink expansion and investment efforts;

(c) decline in business investment and dynamism has slowed the rate of innovation and technology adoption by firms, which in turn has slowed the nation's ability to increase productivity; and

(d) Reserve Bank Governor, Michele Bullock's recent comments that 'the only way interest rates can be reduced is an improvement in our appalling productivity' demonstrate that our current cost-of-living crisis is being impacted by our declining rate of productivity; and

(3) calls on the Government to support research and development efforts in the business sector and to remove burdensome red tape, which is slowing business growth and innovation, in an effort to increase Australia's productivity.

We have seen, under this Labor government, that our economy is in trouble. Last week's national account figures revealed our slowest GDP growth since the 1990s, excluding the pandemic. We have faced the sixth consecutive quarter of negative GDP per person growth and are currently in the longest per capita recession in 50 years. In response to these dire economic outcomes, we've seen a failure to act from this Labor government. Instead, we've seen the Treasurer trying to blame everybody but himself or the government for the position the country currently finds itself in. This includes trying to blame the Reserve Bank, when last week the Treasurer outlined what he believed interest rates were doing to the economy. But the RBA has only one lever to pull in relation to inflation when it's out of control, and that is to increase interest rates. When the government of the day fails to act on an economic and inflationary crisis, the RBA is not left with much choice. I tend to agree with the Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, who has previously stated that the only way interest rates can be reduced is through an improvement in our appalling productivity.

Improving Australia's productivity must be front and centre in any national economic recovery debate. It is a key indicator of increases in our nation's economic welfare and prosperity. Unfortunately, since the last election, productivity has only gone in one direction under this government: backwards. Under this Labor government productivity has collapsed an incredible 6.3 per cent. That's an even further decline since the June 2024 national accounts highlighted in this motion, which had seen productivity fall by 5.2 per cent at that point. Things are clearly not improving under this government's watch.

You may ask, 'What is this government doing to positively impact the economic conditions which have contributed to this decline?' Well, the simple answer to that is: very little to nothing at all. It has not only failed to act on economic policy; it is also adding fuel to the fire by burdening business with further regulation, red tape and cost. Labor's failure on the industrial relations legislation has caused many businesses to rethink expansion and investment efforts, delaying or cancelling projects which would have seen funds directed to improving efficiency or enhancing growth. In turn, this decline in business investment confidence and dynamism has slowed the rate of innovation and technology adoption by firms, which on a broader scale slows the nation's ability to increase productivity.

In the past couple of weeks I've been talking to business people around my electorate. There's a significant degree of pessimism about the future direction of our economy. They certainly had nothing positive to say about the current government. I got an email in the last week or so from one of my textile businesses, a long-term business who has had a lot of work to do with Defence, and they've advised me that, in part but not entirely due to the cost of gas going up, the cost of additional regulation and the lack of proactivity from Defence procurement in the fields that they work in in textiles for defence, they are shutting up shop at the end of October. Not only that, but they also advised that another textile manufacturer for Defence, Wax Converters Textiles, have also just gone into administration. Technical Fabric Services, Wax Converters Textiles and other businesses in this country who should be supplying Australian-made clothing to our defence forces are going out of business because of this government's failure to get proper processes and systems in place to order the kit and equipment the Australian Defence Force needs. What is the difference, and what is the opportunity? That is a coalition government that will work on improving productivity and delivering for Australia.

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