Treasurer to host summit next week to find ways to lift national productivity

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Business leaders, community groups, politicians and economists will converge on Canberra next week for a roundtable to discuss ways to turbocharge the economy and lift Australia's sluggish productivity. Two ideas being put forward are a new national road user charge, as well as a shake-up to childcare funding.

Transcript

00:00The floodgates have really opened when it comes to submissions that the government is

00:05receiving all about unlocking productivity and trying to boost the economy.

00:11So for example, last week, the Australian Council of Trade Unions as well as the Australian

00:17Council of Social Services, putting forward ideas about tweaking negative gearing and

00:23capital gains tax.

00:25Both those bodies would like to see major changes in that space and even see them phased

00:30out or at least tapered off over the next five years because they say that will make the

00:35housing market more equitable.

00:37Two big ideas that have been put on the table today, one surrounding child care subsidies,

00:43so there are calls from some advocates and even MPs as well, for the government to introduce

00:49a flat fee for parents and actually directly fund child care centres.

00:55They say that this would have the added positive or benefit of boosting productivity because

01:02they say it would make the system more fair and sustainable for parents and could get especially

01:07women back into the workforce more quickly after they have a child.

01:11This other idea around introducing a road user charge.

01:16So this is to deal with the fact that more and more Australians are driving electric vehicles.

01:21So they're not paying the fuel excise, which is a tax really that is added onto your bill when

01:28you go to the petrol station and fill up your car with petrol at the bowser.

01:34They essentially would like to see a road user charge so that those driving electric vehicles

01:40also have to pay this upkeep, which essentially goes to maintaining road infrastructure, fixing

01:47potholes and that kind of thing.

01:49We did hear from the Environment Minister, Murray Watt, this morning and he says this idea of

01:55a road user charge is certainly something that the government is considering.

01:59Well, I wouldn't want to jump ahead of any sort of decision making that's going to occur

02:02around that, James, but it's no secret that we've said previously that we'll be working

02:07with the states and territories on this matter.

02:08You'd be aware that there was a High Court decision which really raised this issue front

02:12and centre and ever since then we've been working with the states and territories, but

02:16it's probably a little bit premature to be saying exactly what will occur.

02:19So when these productivity roundtable discussions were announced just a couple of months ago,

02:24there was a lot of fanfare and positive expectation really that we could see major reform

02:30out of these discussions.

02:32Those expectations have been tempered somewhat.

02:35The Treasurer, on the one hand, says that he's open to all ideas as long as they are budget

02:41positive or budget neutral.

02:43The Prime Minister, though, has watered down those expectations slightly.

02:48He's essentially indicated that he's not looking for any major tax reform shake-up beyond

02:54what was already announced at the election.

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