Seven thoughts on Jim Chalmers’ economic roundtable

Jim Chalmers hosts a meeting in August. An economic round table. The idea is to find out what the government can do in the next three years to take 25 people – 25 strong people – to take a room and to solve the economy and the budget.

“We have an open door and an open mind, this is a real initiative to see that we can find a common ground” He said last week.

Chalmers faces a lot of expectations, given the government’s very large majority. The round table is expected to have a series of sessions that focus on three priorities: efficiency, budget “sustainability” and economic flexibility.

I have some thoughts. Actually, ate.

Thought 1: It is strange to make an economic policy agenda after the election. In a perfect world, you do it before. However, after 2019, Bill Shorten, when the voters receive a comprehensive reform list and shelved, what did we expect?

Realpolitik says it is only once to make an agenda these days and that it is after occupation of ministries. Chalmers is doing this. It does not make changes in income tax or changes in GST. Everything is at the table. However, this is a luxury he receives when there is no election campaign ready to take this election into a head story.

“Tax reform is important not for budget sustainability, but also for productivity, Chal Chalmers said to the press club. You can’t say that before the election!

Thought 2: Also, if you think, it is strange to create a representative organ in parliament after an election to develop a policy agenda. In this building, there is already 150 people who pay money to do this, and there is a really nice room to host them: the House of Representatives.

In addition, a fascinating burgundy tone has a similar installation at a short corridor distance.

Drawing a tour for 25 representatives in June after a election in June you can trust in finding good policy ideas? This shows how much our democratic institutions move from the ideal of any platonic policy, intentional bodies.

Is it fair to criticize the Labor Party as in the world? Are the affected impressives who make a policy of rejecting the parliament, a dysfunctional casserole of solid party lines and Riled-up audiences, is it cynical to accept it? Or is it just pragmatic?

“Everything is about what we’re trying to create about our biggest economic challenges,” says chalmers. I guess this consensus is created by people other than MPs?

The 2025 round table will be much smaller than this crowd at the 2022 Business and Skill Summit. Probably, the government found the crowd cumbersome. I got a few faces in the circles that could take a concert in both.

Thought 3: Native Australia needs a referendum to make a sound to parliament – Sally Mcmanus and the Business Council need a Chalmers office to buy flight tickets.

Thought 4: While talking about cynicism, it is fascinating to watch Chalmers to appeal to the better nature of the participants, not only think of national interests, want to consider and think about the exchange while in the room, but also to help to create a consensus.

“This is a very different discussion for the work and skill summit – a much smaller, much more targeted, a larger onus on people in the room to create a consensus outside the room,” Chalmers said.

“When it comes to what they propose, we want them to get an economic view throughout the country, not a sectoral view of their own interests.”

On the one hand, I am excited about the attempt to reset democratic norms from pure war to cooperation. I think that our democratic institutions naturally choir, and the best way to combat this corrosion is the support of democracy and the cross rays of democracy, as bright and new as the day they were founded.

We call these contracts. If we treat democratic conventions as real, they will gradually become real. This happens if you act like a polite where we all come together for greater goodness. Or at least it is a little more than it is.

On the other hand, I hope that Chalmers has a plan for what they should do if the summit is not like this, and people use it as a platform to hit the government and promote themselves.

Thought 5: It is very difficult to make people care about productivity and it is very easy to make them care about the budget balance. The first is very important, but the second is a bit.

Productivity gains may resemble losses. If we had to use half of the Australian labor force to avoid the grain and milk cows, we would be a very poor country. However, when you invent the merging harvest and automatic milking machine, you will get a lot of work loss.

Budget gains are similar to earnings. You print a document that shows that things have increased properly. Nobody talks about “debt and open disaster .. However, of course, it can be extremely destructive to reduce expenditures and raise taxes.

I am not optimistic about a productivity agenda developed.

Thought 6: Former Treasurer Ken Henry was hidden on the wings at Chalmers’ press club last week. 2007 Henry Tax Investigation Has Not Died! They can sit on the shelf for a long time.

“One of a few people I talked about about these big policy challenges,” Chalmers said last week

I respect Ken Henry. But my great concern with Chalmers is always the Gulf War Syndrome.

Just as George W. Bush returned to Iraq – trying to finish his father’s beginning – I’m worried that Chalmers will return to the trauma of his swan years again. In the subconscious, I am worried that the largest driving driving was to make the “four -year surplus I announced tonight” that Wayne Swan mentioned in 2012 and never happened. Swan was beaten in the press and contributed to the death of the governments of Rudd and Gillard partly.

But this date. The world is not like that time. We need a treasurer with attention to the future and the metrics that are important.

Thought 7: Where is Albo in all this? While the former Treasury Secretary is now leading the Prime Minister’s Office and developing the Treasurer Policy Agenda, it seems to be a term of an economic -based government.

If this round table meeting is greater than the 2022 business and skill summit and any real reform emerges from it – then the chalmers will be in the box chair to make a Keating and become the next prime minister of Australia. The country is a great moment for economy and politics. Let’s see if Chalmers can take it out.