Australia’s economic “big idea” moment has arrived: the Productivity Summit. A stage full of business leaders, unions, and policy wonks will gather under bright lights to talk reform.
📜 The Untouchables
Here’s what won’t even make it to the stage:
- ❌ Negative gearing
- ❌ Capital gains tax concessions
- ❌ Restrictions on foreign property buyers
- ❌ Any meaningful superannuation reform
🏛 Politics in Stasis
- Labor: dominant in parliament but too timid to use it.
- Liberals: reduced to shouting “don’t do that.”
- Unions: pushing for a four-day week without wage cuts.
- Business: demanding “flexibility,” code for lower wages and taxes.
The result? Gridlock. Reform is paralysed before it begins.
📉 The Economy on Repeat
Productivity has flatlined since 2016.
- 🏠 Property dominates: 80% of bank lending flows into housing.
- 💰 Winners: banks, investors, shareholders.
- 👷 Losers: wage earners, small business, first-home buyers.
The Reserve Bank has already warned of a lower standard of living ahead. GDP growth capped at 2%. And yet the money keeps circling safely in houses and shares because why risk building something new when speculation is rewarded?
💸 The Rorts That Rule
🔄 Share buybacks – Profits used to pump up share prices and executive bonuses, not jobs or innovation.
🏠 Airbnb loopholes – About $5B a year lost through tax deductions while rental supply dries up.🌏 Foreign capital flood – Singapore taxes foreign buyers at 60%. Australia? Red carpet treatment.
📉 Negative gearing & CGT – Subsidies that fuel debt, inflate prices, and lock wealth with the already rich.
These policies tilt the system towards speculation, not productivity. It’s easier and far more profitable to buy your fifth investment property than to start a business, hire staff, or invest in growth.
🎬 The Real Script
The summit will talk about productivity. The government will issue statements about productivity. But without tackling the rorts, the subsidies, and the stranglehold of vested interests, productivity won’t budge.
