Business Council of Australia annual dinner

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respect to their elders past, present and emerging.

When I spoke at this dinner last year, the Business Council of Australia had just published the "Seize the Moment" report.

Characteristic of the BCA, the report was broad in its scope and bold in its ambition.

It took stock of the decade past and identified six big changes required to make our economy more productive, competitive, dynamic and prosperous.

Moving from a narrow industrial base - to a diversified and resilient one.

From a disjointed approach to education and training - to a modern system that gives people the skills they need to thrive in the future.

From a dependence on a few key export markets - to a broader range of products and destinations.

From low investment and productivity - to an environment with incentives for investment, where it's easier to do business.

From too much red tape - to an economy creating jobs and driving growth.

And moving from an unsustainable budget trajectory - to more disciplined spending, delivering better services.

I said at the time it was heartening to see such significant overlap between the goals of the business community and the agenda of our government.

A year later, in all six of these areas, we can - and we should - take pride in the progress we have achieved together.

The National Reconstruction Fund and our Future Made in Australia agenda will diversify and broaden our industrial base - putting our resources, researchers, exporters and manufacturers at the centre of the biggest economic transformation since the industrial revolution.

We're seeing new opportunities created and new productivity unlocked through half a million fee-free TAFE places, with Jobs and Skills Australia working with business to link those courses to careers.

We're opening the doors of opportunity by expanding access to Higher Education and delivering on the Universities Accord.

We've made child care cheaper for 1.2 million families, an economic reform that boosts productivity and participation for parents.

We are expanding Paid Parental Leave, making it more flexible and adding superannuation - backed by leaders in this room and built on our commitment to economic equality.

In trade, Australian businesses have been both key ambassadors - and significant beneficiaries.

Stabilising the relationship with China has cleared away nearly $20 billion in impediments for our farmers, growers, producers and miners.

And acting on the blueprint we commissioned from Nicholas Moore, we're putting business at the centre of our engagement in South East Asia.

Together, those nations will represent the 4th largest economy in the world by 2040.

Yet less than 4 per cent of Australia's international investment goes to that region, our region, the fastest-growing region of the world in human history.

We're investing in the skills, technology and financing facilities that will open these markets to Australian business.

And earlier today we finalised negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement with the United Arab Emirates - the gateway to a market of 58 million consumers.

This deal will bring significant new opportunities for our farmers, producers and exporters - and drive investment.

On the question of spending discipline, in the last two years, we've delivered the first back to back budget surpluses for nearly two decades.

Less than a month ago, we secured agreement on vital changes to put the National Disability Insurance Scheme on a sustainable footing.

And less than a week ago, we brokered a generational agreement to deliver greater quality, choice, dignity and security in aged care.

Two of the biggest long-term pressures on the budget - and two services absolutely fundamental to Australians' quality of life.

Proof that economic reform is not confined to a vanished golden age - it remains our challenge to meet and our opportunity to seize.

I am optimistic that government and business can do this together.

By recognising each other's strengths, respecting each other's views and valuing each other's contribution.

We have different responsibilities that demand different approaches, so it is inevitable we will have occasional differences of opinion.

But - for me - those points of disagreement have never defined or diminished our engagement.

Because our government serves all Australians.

We are proudly pro-business and pro-worker.

And we don't see this as a point of tension, we see it as a matter of logic.

We understand secure jobs and fair wages depend on thriving businesses, just as we know productivity gains depend on skilled workers and safe workplaces and, for that matter, the skills and education, infrastructure, health care and energy that Government funds and builds.

Throughout the past two years, we've stood against some pretty extreme anti-business policies put forward by members of the crossbench, and perhaps more surprisingly, by the Opposition.

We've stood up for some of Australia's biggest employers, when others have attacked you for holding a view different to their own.

We don't do any of this because it's politically convenient.

We do it out of respect for what you do - and because we value what you say.

One of the many healthy things about our democracy is that there's room for everyone's views.

Equally, in a democracy, those ideas have to stand on their merits and withstand public scrutiny.

You have to be prepared to make the case, answer for your priorities and demonstrate how the propositions you are advancing will benefit the lives of people whose support you are seeking.

Because economic and social change is not delivered via ultimatum, it's built by consensus and strengthened by the mandate of the people.

Earlier, Bran spoke about looking back at what his predecessors had said at these dinners.

Over the years I know many of my predecessors have come to your events to demand you advocate more forcefully for their agenda.

Tonight, I encourage you: keep advancing yours.

I welcome the fact that the Business Council of Australia wants to be part of the policy debate on:

Cost of living.

Affordable housing.

Cleaner and cheaper energy.

Stronger Medicare, better aged care, an NDIS that fulfils its purpose.

And the skills and education our nation needs for the future.

Those are the five questions you're asking - and they are five areas where our Government is taking action.

We're helping with the cost of living through fairer prices, lower taxes and stronger wages.

Building more homes for Australians.

Rolling out more renewables and storage around the country.

Strengthening Medicare, reforming aged care, securing the future of the NDIS.

And training people for new opportunities in a transforming economy.

In all this, as we act on the immediate challenges in front of us, we are also building for the opportunities ahead of us.

The world is changing.

Our vision for a Future Made in Australia is about anticipating that change and shaping it.

Making it work for our regions and suburbs.

Making the most of our natural advantages.

And making more things here.

In this, we have every cause for optimism.

As Jim Chalmers says: if you started with a blank of piece of paper and wrote down everything a country needs to prosper from the global shift to net zero at the end of it you would hold in your hand a list of Australia's strengths.

Truly, we have a combination no other nation can claim as its own: critical minerals, skills, science, space and sunlight.

Our status as a trusted trading partner and stable democracy.

Our proximity to the fastest-growing markets in the world - and diaspora communities that give us a family connection to every nation on earth.

Our Government is investing in all these strengths - skills, communities, infrastructure and energy.

Creating new Production Tax Credits for critical minerals and green hydrogen.

Putting more staff and resources into the approvals process, for better and faster decisions.

And empowering businesses to create the new jobs and deliver the new projects that will secure the next generation of growth and prosperity.

This is about Government acting as a catalyst for private capital, not a replacement.

Mobilising investment, not crowding it out or ploughing ahead in its absence.

Identifying those new sources of comparative advantage and those core areas of national interest, to better align our economic and national security.

And providing the certainty and clarity to drive investment and job creation.

We've brought this vital certainty to energy policy, after the chaos of the climate wars.

The Business Council stood with us, as we upgraded Australia's 2030 emissions reduction target.

And business leaders backed us in legislating it, along with our commitment to Net Zero.

Setting those targets sends an important signal to the market and the world - but the real test is whether you have a plan to get there.

That's what our Safeguards Mechanism is about.

This is a practical framework which has been accepted - which is why you don't need the gesture-based climate amendments advanced by the Greens political party to our Nature Positive legislation.

We've created New Vehicle Emissions Standards.

We are upgrading the national energy grid with our Rewiring the Nation plan.

And investors are queuing around the block to participate in our Capacity Investment Scheme.

The level of demand, the investor competition to be part of large-scale generation and storage projects tells the same story as the hundreds of thousands of households and small businesses that are embracing rooftop solar each year.

It shows that investors understand renewable energy, backed by storage and firmed by gas is the way to go.

Not a distant future prospect - but the choice of the market and households, here and now.

Many of you will know how much I enjoyed the six years I spent as Minister for Infrastructure.

Infrastructure teaches you a lot about the economy - boosting productivity, the multiplier effect that significant projects can have on economic growth, creating public-private partnerships.

It teaches you about communities and people - our cities, suburbs and the regions.

It reminds you of the difference good government can make by investing in the housing, services and shared spaces that create opportunity, nourish aspiration and add to quality of life everywhere.

And as we've seen here in Sydney recently with the opening of the Metro, the Moorebank Intermodal and the accelerating progress on Western Sydney International Airport, infrastructure teaches you a good deal about patience and perspective as well.

Making the right decisions means you have to do much more than ask: what's the cheapest option, or the easiest course, or the one that carries the lowest political risk.

You face a lot of urgent challenges - but you can't deal in quick fixes.

You have to strike the balance between taking immediate action to relieve the pressure - and delivering solutions for the long term.

You can't base your decision on whether or not you will be around to get the credit for it.

Nor can you hold off until success is certain.

All of you understand this, you live it.

You navigate uncertainty, you wear risk, you work to find the balance between your employees, shareholders and the future of your company.

For all of us, there will be times when the pace of progress tests our patience.

But then there are days like last Thursday - when we secured generational, bipartisan reform to something as important to Australian life as aged care.

And you can only earn moments like that through months and years of work: consulting, negotiating, seeking common ground.

That's we're doing through National Cabinet to secure the future of the NDIS, build more homes for Australians and address the scourge of domestic and family violence.

This is the work we are engaged in on reforms to higher education - and competition.

All of these are big changes that demand genuine engagement and ownership from all levels of government and all parts of society.

Education and skills, health care and the social safety net require a leadership only Government can provide - but they deliver a benefit in which our entire nation shares.

Inevitably, it is more complicated and more time-consuming to fit those different elements together, to get everyone on the same page.

It requires a willingness to listen - and a preparedness to compromise.

We undertake this because we know that holding stubbornly to the wrong course is not strength and co-operation to achieve an outcome is not weakness.

Co-operation is essential to creating a broader and stronger foundation for progress, for change that makes a lasting difference to people's lives.

That's the objective we share and the goal we strive for.

A stronger economy for business and for workers - and a better future for all Australians.

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