Industry captains to Tony Abbott: show us what you’ve got

Matt Chambers
Friday 4 January 2013
The Australian

Business leaders have called on Tony Abbott to start revealing more of what he plans should he win government, in a period of ongoing political uncertainty in what some see as a potentially strong year economically.

Workplace reform and infrastructure spending remain key concerns among some of the nation’s top business leaders, who are hoping this year’s election will provide a long-awaited chance to spur action.

BlueScope Steel and Brambles chairman Graham Kraehe said increased regulation, stalled infrastructure and labour reform were the main policy issues that needed to be addressed, but that there was no sign the government wanted to deal with them.

“The opposition really needs to start articulating policies pretty clearly about how it is going to grow a strong Australian economy from what’s potentially a good base, but which has not been well served by policy,” Mr Kraehe said yesterday in the Victorian holiday town of Sorrento.

“I can understand the opposition doesn’t want to get out too early, but now we’re in an election year we need to hear from them about productivity, infrastructure and regulation. Those big three things are vital.”

Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford said voters had probably grown tired of the personal attacks that dominated politics at the end of last year, and they wanted the debate to shift to policy.

“What they’re expecting from government is to now focus on a debate over core issues like jobs, education and health,” Mr Clifford said.

“We’ve also got to think about how infrastructure is addressed because governments, state and federal, aren’t going to have the huge surpluses that were available in the past.”

Mr Clifford said while tactically it might be too early for the opposition to put forward policy positions, more information was needed. “I hope they release more about the philosophy about what they are saying — that is, the skeleton to put the flesh on when you have the policy,” he said.

Mr Kraehe and Mr Clifford joined scores of other corporate captains in the first big business social event of the year, the KPMG Couta Boat Classic at Sorrento.

The event, in which wooden fishing boats up to 80 years old are raced with corporate teams, attracted about 500 people, including many Melbourne corporate heads who spend their summer in the seaside playground south of the city.

KPMG Australia chairman Paul Nash said the economy was likely to grow by about 2 per cent this year, which was good by developed-world standards. “The election is creating an added layer of instability in this marketplace — there’s no doubt that business is cautious,” Mr Nash said.

“I’m far more optimistic about the second half, with the election behind us and some certainty.”

Most of the corporate heads saw developments overseas as encouraging and likely to have a positive effect on Australia.

Westpac chairman Lindsay Maxsted was more circumspect than most. “If you think through what all the factors that existed in 2012 that made people cautious were, they’re all still there,” Mr Maxsted said.

He said the international scene had improved marginally but unemployment in Europe was still a big issue, and the US had not decided on a fiscal cliff outcome and still had a huge budget deficit.

“In Australia, most individuals still have high levels of debt they want to pay off and we still have concerns on where we will finish in a political sense,” he said.

Mr Maxstead said it was important there was not a hung parliament after the next election and that whoever won engaged with business.