The prime minister is confident unions and business groups will find common ground in dealing with flagging rates of productivity.
Anthony Albanese announced a productivity roundtable would be held in Canberra in August to find ways on lifting economic output.
Experts are concerned about Australia’s lagging rate of productivity – a key economic measure of efficiency and long-term driver of improved living standards.
The prime minister dismissed suggestions the roundtable would amount to little more than a talkfest.
“It’s a good idea to bring people together and to get dialogue,” he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
“It is not unreasonable to bring people together … business and unions have common interests, we have a national interest in boosting productivity.”
The Productivity Commissioner’s most recent report showed labour productivity fell 0.1 per cent in the December quarter and dropped 1.2 per cent in the past year.
The Business Council of Australia says productivity growth over the past decade has been the lowest in 60 years.
Mr Albanese said while fixing the issue of low productivity growth would be challenging, it was important to bring major players together.
“This has been something that has been around for decades. If the solution was easy, then perhaps someone would have grasped it a decade ago,” he said.
“We want to engage directly, constructively, rather than people shouting at each other.”
Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien said the coalition had given the government a partial tick on hosting the summit.
“A round table. Yay!” Mr O’Brien joked during an interview on Nine’s Today program on Wednesday.
“But look … to be fair, at least they’re recognising the problem … so let’s take that as a partial tick.”
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Andrew McKellar said he would go into the summit with an open mind.
“What we will be looking to see is some practical, quick wins, some changes that can be made and implemented quickly to get things going,” he told Sky News.
“Obviously, we do want a longer term, more ambitious agenda, but I think let’s take the first step.”
Mr McKellar said tax reform should be considered to boost productivity, as well as expanding instant asset write-offs for businesses.
“We say act now, make it a longer term or permanent feature of the tax system, and you’ll get credit for doing that,” he said.
“Let’s make some practical changes that make it easier for small business to create jobs and employ more people to promote productivity.”
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said working Australians must be at the centre of the roundtable.
“We need to leave behind the idea that productivity is equated with cutting pay and making people work harder for less,” she said.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has slashed its global growth forecast for 2025 by four-tenths of a percentage point to 2.3 per cent.
The downgrade was driven by higher US tariffs on foreign imports and heightened uncertainty posed a “significant headwind” for nearly all economies.
The World Bank is the latest body to cut its growth forecast as a result of President Donald Trump’s erratic trade policies.
But it stopped short of forecasting a recession, despite predicting global economic growth this year would be the weakest outside of a recession since 2008.
with Reuters
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