Albanese will use a speech to business leaders in Sydney to highlight major Labor policies, such as a childcare plan that promises 96 per cent of families will be better off from higher childcare support.
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The speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will make a case for further economic reform to lift productivity, although it will do so by highlighting existing Labor policies rather than unveiling new ones.
“The fact is that the country has been drawing down on the sources of Labor’s productivity-enhancing economic growth policies for three decades now,” Albanese will say.
“We now need new reforms to drive growth in the decades ahead.
“The sources of economic growth need to be replenished.A country cannot keep drawing from an old well, because the well eventually dries out.
“Economic policies that play around the edges don’t position the country for the long term.
“Australia needs a new playbook to seize the future.”
Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott greeted the Reserve Bank interest rate rise on Tuesday with a statement calling for policies from both major parties to remove “bottlenecks” in the economy that hurt growth.
“That will mean finally addressing the structural barriers in the economy, including acute worker shortages, an outdated skills system and record-low business investment,” she said.
“And we can finally take the friction out of our planning system for major projects, make sure the supply of housing is orderly and efficient and reduce the outdated red tape that makes getting products to market and projects off the ground more expensive for businesses and consumers.”
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Alexi Boyd, chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, said small businesses were facing cost pressures from different areas, including supply costs, higher fuel prices and growing interest rates.
“If you speak to the typical small business owner, they won’t say that there’s 5 per cent inflation, they’ll say that their costs are going up by 30 or 40 per cent, depending on the industry,” she said.
Boyd said the next government should commit to structural reform to make it easier to run a business. “Businesses are ready to grow,” she said.
The small business advocacy group wants industrial relations changes to make it simpler for small businesses to hire staff, reforms to business lending and debt servicing, and an extension of the instant asset write-off scheme that is due to expire in 2023.
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