Jim Chalmers has framed the government’s economic reform push as a test of collective will, pointing to a rare consensus forged during three days of intensive talks in Canberra.
The Treasurer said the roundtable had “29 hours of discussion” and “something like 327 different contributions,” drawing in Cabinet colleagues, business leaders, union figures and policy experts. “It’s a real privilege to govern or help govern a country like ours at a time of such rapid and consequential change,” he told reporters after the meeting. “And at the front of all of our minds around that Cabinet room table is really the magnitude of the opportunity that we have to turn our recent momentum in the economy into lasting and enduring progress.”
He described higher living standards as “the holy grail” and stressed that “a more productive economy is how we deliver it.” The roundtable identified ten broad reform directions: progress towards a single national market, tariff reform, cutting regulatory clutter, speeding up approvals, accelerating home building, making artificial intelligence a national priority, attracting investment, building skills, reshaping the tax system and modernising government services.
Some measures will be fast-tracked. Chalmers confirmed he would work with Trade Minister Don Farrell to abolish “hundreds more nuisance tariffs” in consultation with industry. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil will examine ways to reduce red tape in the National Construction Code, while Environment Minister Murray Watt has been asked to accelerate changes to environmental approvals. “We’ve got a backlog of environmental approvals for new homes, most likely in the tens of thousands,” Chalmers said. “We’ve asked Murray to work with Clare to see what we can do to knock off that backlog, or as many of that backlog as we can.”
Artificial intelligence was singled out for urgent action, with an APS AI plan and a broader National AI Capability Plan both expected soon. “We got some really good inputs into that in the room, including how we work out those national interest principles on data centres, with all the resourcing questions that that invites,” Chalmers said.
On tax, Chalmers stopped short of announcing a new review but set out three priorities: fairness for working people across generations, investment incentives for business, and a simpler, more sustainable system to fund services. “There was a view in the room that we not commission another lengthy, public, external tax review,” he said. “What they wanted to do was to give us the guidance that they will help us in those three areas to do the work that we need to do, to inform future budgets.”
A road user charge, long debated among policymakers, gained unusual traction. “There was more than the usual amount of consensus in a conceptual way around road user charging,” Chalmers said. “Really right around the table, people had a view that this is an idea whose time has come, and so we will do that work.” He and NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey will take options to state and territory colleagues in September.
The Treasurer acknowledged that the changes under discussion were not a single sweeping reform package but argued that the cumulative effect of many steps would matter most. “If there was one switch that we would flick to make our economy instantly more productive, somebody would have flicked it already,” he said. “This is hard, long-term work… the best way to turn that around is to act on multiple fronts at once.”
He also framed much of the discussion in generational terms, citing contributions from union leaders, business representatives and economists. “Our tax system is imperfect, and one of its most troubling imperfections is best seen through an intergenerational lens,” he said. “We as people of influence with this opportunity have responsibilities in lots of ways, but especially intergenerational responsibilities, and we take them very seriously.”
Chalmers insisted the talks were about direction rather than instant fixes. “I finished the three days more optimistic about the progress that we can make together than I was at the start,” he said. “What an unbelievable privilege when you think about the pace of change, how consequential it is. Our opportunities and our risks are finely balanced, and we believe that we give ourselves a much better chance of being the best in the world at confronting those challenges in an upfront way, in an honest way and in a decisive way, if we include more people in that task.”
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