Explore our Progress 2050 Goal Tracker
The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) is an independent, membership think tank. Our members span industry, government, community and academia. Our research and advocacy are shaped by our Progress 2050 vision for long-term, sustainable prosperity for all Australians. Progress 2050 is centred on two pillars: a strong economy and a strong social compact working together. Productivity growth and economic reform are central to achieving this vision. The Roundtable should be guided by a bold, forward-looking ambition for Australia's long-term prosperity. Our recommendations address the Government’s three priority areas for the roundtable: improve productivity, enhance economic resilience and strengthen budget sustainability.
Deliver on a new Seamless National Economy agenda
Differing rules and regulations across jurisdictions are costly and impede the mobility of people, capital and ideas across the country. The Government should reignite the successful Seamless National Economy agenda of 2009-2013.
Unfinished business from the first national agreement should be prioritised, such as national occupational licensing and environmental approvals.
A new agenda should be agreed with emphasis on: land-use planning; enabling a national circular economy; data sharing across jurisdictions by default; and best practice procurement. The National Productivity Fund should be used to incentivise timely and consistent reform and performance monitoring.
Recommendation: Deliver a new Seamless National Economy agreement between the Commonwealth and states and territories.
Unlock the potential of data, AI and innovation
Better use of data and AI will enable regulatory efficiency and quality and sharpen focus on desired outcomes over prescriptive process. Risk aversion, including as a result of robodebt, is inhibiting the use of AI throughout the public sector.
Recommendation: Identify pilots to lead by example in the adoption of AI for timely and improved regulatory decision making. There should be emphasis on unlocking barriers to investment in critical areas such as housing, energy, decarbonisation and climate adaptation; and sharing benefits and learnings across government to build confidence and expertise.
Recommendation: Build a data-first culture and capability that considers how data and AI can enable policy delivery and outcomes at the design phase, rather than at the time of implementation.
Unlock migrant skills
Australia has reaped enormous benefits from the skills that migrants bring to our country. We can and should do more to target the skills we need and make the most of migrants’ skills. The use of labour agreements to address structural skills needs in the care sector is not efficient or effective.
Recommendation: Implement an Essential Skills Pathway as considered in the 2023 Migration Strategy. The pathway should initially target lower-paid occupations in the aged care sector and replace the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement.
Recommendation: Expand access to English-language training for skilled migrants and improve recognition of international qualifications and work experience. Professional capacity should be assessed through direct assessment of competence.
Progress comprehensive tax reform
The need for comprehensive tax reform to underpin improved economic performance and strengthen our social compact is well understood. The Government has a unique opportunity now to contemplate genuine structural reform of the tax system. This reform should not be rushed. Time should be taken to build consensus around the objectives of reform, choices and trade-offs, and how these respond to future challenges and opportunities. Consultation should engage the community and seek to identify shared priorities and areas of agreement as the basis to building momentum for reforms that are able to be implemented and sustained.
Recommendation: The Government should undertake comprehensive tax reform focused on improving incentives to work and invest in productive capacity, safeguarding the overall progressiveness of the system and intergenerational equity, and addressing market failures. Individual components of the tax and transfer system cannot be considered in isolation. The simplicity, efficiency and equity of the overall tax system should guide the reform program.
Enable better long-term planning and decision making
The challenges facing the Australian economy require joined-up thinking across the Federation. The ability to undertake reform is hampered by a lack of transparent, holistic, long-term budgeting and planning. This is especially so when reforms involve upfront costs, or their benefits take time to emerge or flow to jurisdictions that did not bear the initial costs.
Recommendation: The Parliamentary Budget Office should undertake whole-of-government intergenerational reporting and modelling. This analysis should incorporate the effects of key long developments relevant for budgets, including an ageing population, digital transformation and AI, changing global trade patterns and climate change.
Recommendation: The Federal Government should fast-track its commitment to longer term, evidenced-based migration planning in collaboration with state and territories.
Recommendation: Ramp up data access and analytical capacity for program evaluation, particularly in key areas of social and Indigenous policy. Develop protocols and practices for sharing data and information with community to enable genuine policy consultation. Leverage the Australian Centre for Evaluation to embed an evaluation culture within the public sector.
Strengthen our social compact
As decarbonisation and technological change drive significant and rapid changes in demand for skills, a key plank of our social compact is ensuring that individuals impacted are enabled to build new skills and opportunities.
Recommendation: Government support for these transitions should be proactive and targeted to workers and communities affected, rather than the businesses or organisations employing them and should avoid creating disincentives to change ways of working, jobs or retrain. Having safe, secure and affordable housing allows people to access essential services, put themselves and their families through education and find a job. Our housing shortage makes it harder for many Australians to make a productive contribution to the economy. More consistent regulation would remove barriers to the delivery of housing and can boost Australia’s weak construction productivity growth by reducing barriers to the growth of successful construction firms.
Recommendation: Make local and state government building and planning regulations more streamlined and consistent, using the National Productivity Fund as a lever.