Friday 6 November 2026

The Albanese Labor Government is scrambling for a cure to Australia’s productivity crisis while refusing to diagnose the disease, Federal Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster MP said today.

As the aftershocks of a 17th interest rate rise under Labor continue since Tuesday, and business insolvencies run at 46 businesses a day since the May Budget, Treasurer Jim Chalmers is now hunting for ways to lift productivity without using the very tools he needs to do so.

"Jim Chalmers is asking Treasury to cure Australia's productivity crisis, but has ruled out treating the underlying disease. It's political malpractice dressed up as economic management." Dr Webster said.

“When the Albanese Labor Government asked the Productivity Commission to investigate barriers to business growth, its set tax reform and industrial relations out-of-bounds.  

“Meanwhile, the Treasurer has pleaded with Treasury to find new productivity policies for his mid-year budget update next month, despite his flop of a productivity roundtable a year ago.

Dr Webster noted an interim Productivity Commission report released on Thursday showed many participants wanted tax and industrial relations reform on the table, while regional and remote businesses face workforce shortages and other challenges but the tools they need – like a reduction in red tape, and less taxes - while migration, education, training and housing reform, are also off-the-table.

"Mallee small businesses don't need another Canberra farce pretending to address the very real issues business is facing. They live with the consequences of high business costs and compliance every day, and it is sending them broke and costing local jobs."

"Whether it’s higher interest costs, higher taxes, higher energy bills, higher insurance premiums or layer upon layer of regulation, every dollar and every hour swallowed by unnecessary compliance is money and time that can't be invested in another worker, new equipment or growing the business."

"Labor cannot credibly diagnose Australia's productivity problem while locking most of the tools for economic reform in the tool shed."

"In regional Australia, a small business isn't an abstract line on an economic chart. It is someone's family investment, the local employer taking on an apprentice, the shop sponsoring the footy club and the service keeping a small town alive."

"As I said in Canberra on the most recent sitting day, when those businesses disappear, communities lose much more than a company name from a register.  A shopfront closes.  Workers lose their jobs.  The post office and newsagent lose business. People leave town."

"The Albanese Labor Government has spent more than four years piling costs and complexity onto the people who actually create jobs and take risks, and now Treasurer Chalmers is asking Treasury why productivity won't grow."

"The answer is staring him in the face – The Nationals’ Plan (www.nationalsplan.org.au) for the economy will lower taxes, reduce compliance and red tape, provide cheaper power, provide more homes and put Australians first.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black said “Every Tom, Dick and Harry knows you cannot fix our economic malaise and productivity crisis without addressing tax and workplace settings.”

“It’s like something out of Monty Python’s Black Knight skit. The government has sent the PC to fight the productivity crisis but chopped off its arms by banning it from looking at tax and IR policies, while pretending everything is fine.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said failing to look at tax and industrial relations is like a doctor being blocked from checking the heart or lungs.

“You can ease symptoms, but you miss what is killing the patient,” McKellar said.

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