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The professional body has welcomed the prospect of a productivity roundtable in August as the government seeks solutions to boost Australia’s poor productivity growth.
Productivity roundtable must ‘explore all options’: CPA Australia
12 June 2025
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8 minute read
In a National Press Club address on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that the government would convene a productivity roundtable later this year to explore solutions to address Australia’s floundering productivity growth.
CPA Australia business investment leader Gavan Ord lauded the roundtable as a step in the right direction, underscoring the importance of engaging business leaders to solve Australia’s productivity problems.
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“The roundtable can be successful if it genuinely and openly seeks to explore all options for boosting productivity and improving our economy,” he said.
“It therefore must include examining regulatory burden, considering improvements to our tax settings, and exploring how we can boost support for our struggling SME sector.”
With inflation back in the Reserve Bank’s target range, Treasurer Jim Chalmers declared productivity as the defining economic challenge of Labor’s next term of government.
The Productivity Commission’s last quarterly report found that Australian labour productivity has flatlined over the past decade - bad news for workers, given that productivity growth is associated with wage growth over the long run.
Albanese said that the roundtable, set to be convened by Chalmers in August, would shape the government’s growth and productivity agenda.
“At Parliament House in August, we will bring together a group of leaders from the business community, the union movement and civil society,” Albanese said.
“What we want is a focused dialogue and constructive debate that leads to concrete and tangible actions.”
The Productivity Commission, which was tasked with getting to the bottom of Australia’s productivity issues, identified five key focus areas to boost productivity.
These included creating a dynamic and resilient economy by changing corporate taxation and regulatory settings, building a skilled and adaptable workforce, harnessing digital technology, driving more efficiency in the care sector and investing in the net-zero transition.
In a submission to the Productivity Commission, CPA Australia called for comprehensive tax reform, warning that a poorly designed tax system would serve as a “handbrake on progress.”
It also urged the government to dial back regulations, warning that unnecessary and duplicated regulations were a “thorn in the side” for businesses, not-for-profits and government agencies. According to CPA, policymakers should consider regulation as a ‘last resort’ rather than a default response to problems.
CPA also called on the government to accelerate technology adoption, strengthen tertiary education institutions and better support young entrepreneurs.
Ord said that fixing Australia’s productivity woes would require goodwill between sectors and bipartisanship within politics.
“Addressing it will require hard work – collective, long-term effort across all sectors, including government, business, unions, education and civil society,” he said.
“The solutions sit at all levels of government. A holistic approach must be taken to boost productivity, strengthen and diversify the economy, create jobs and deliver a culture shift where entrepreneurism is encouraged and facilitated.”
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